Alumni Serve as International Political Leaders
L-R: Egidio Torre-Cantú (MSCE 1981) and Bilal Hamad (MSCE 1979, PhD 1990)
After earning his bachelor’s degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Egidio Torre-Cantú came to UT CAEE to study Construction Engineering and Project Management. He completed his master’s degree and returned to Ciudad Victoria, Mexico where he served in local and state government and later built and ran his own construction business, Servicios de Ingeniería Tohesa. Torre-Cantú was appointed Public Works Director for Ciudad Victoria and later Director of Construction for the State of Tamaulipas. Subsequently, he served as a city councilman and became mayor of Ciudad Victoria in 2000. He was elected governor of Tamaulipas in July 2010 and will serve until 2017. With a vision of building a “state that is strong for all”, Torre-Cantú is focusing on four priority areas: public safety; addressing the basic needs of the people of Tamaulipas(through education, health promotion, housing and quality of life improvements);enhancing the state’s economic competitiveness (through workforce, investment and infrastructure initiatives); and promoting sustainability through improved urban planning and natural resource protection. In a recent meeting with Texas Governor Rick Perry, Torre-Cantu affirmed his commitment to building strong relationships with Texas and The University of Texas at Austin.
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Bilal Hamad’s multi-disciplinary engineering experiences and his ability to work effectively with the community and its institutions have helped him navigate careers in academia and politics. A professor of engineering and former Chair at the American University of Beirut (AUB), he won the position of Mayor in a recent municipal election. As the newly elected Mayor of Beirut, he intends to improve infrastructure as well as modernize the administration and preserve the environment. He is hoping to address the capital’s nagging problems with traffic, parking and lack of green spaces by modernizing public transportation. His engineering background provides him with a scientific, rational approach to problem solving, which he feels he can rely on to achieve his mayoral goals. Hamad earned his M.S. and Ph.D. at UT CAEE, working with Professor James Jirsa on assessing the influence of epoxy coating on the bond characteristics of reinforcing bars. The aim of their research was to develop or revise the existing recommendations for the designs of splices and anchorage of straight and hooked epoxy-coated reinforcement. At AUB, he expounded on this research and also focused on concrete technology and sustainable concrete construction materials.
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Hernán de Solminihac (MSCE 1986, PhD 1992)
Hernán de Solminihac Tampier, former Dean of Engineering at the Universidad Católica de Chile, is Minister of Public Works in Chile. In a ceremony marred by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake and subsequent aftershocks, de Solminihac was sworn into office on March 11, 2010. The earthquake and ensuing tsunami required his immediate attention - he coordinated repair of highways and airports as well as the restoration of potable water and the building of new schools in affected zones so that students would not miss the school year. His training in civil engineering will continue to serve him well during the upcoming years of post-quake reconstruction. At UT CAEE he worked with Transportation Engineering Professor W. Ron Hudson to complete his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. He continued his academic career as a professor in the Engineering School at the Universidad Católica de Chile and Director of the DICTUC, a center that makes the knowledge acquired at school available to the community. He has several academic publications, including the book, Highway Infrastucture Management. In July 2010, he inaugurated a new $9.6M highway, Route 9, connecting Puerto Natales to Villa Cerro Castillo, which is expected to increase tourism in the remote area of Patagonia.