Juan Manuel Zolezzi Cid is an Electrical Civil Engineer from Universidad Técnica del Estado, Master in Engineering Sciences from Universidad de Chile and Doctor in Engineering Sciences from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Together with his work as main and alternate researcher in important Fondecyt projects and as an evaluator of scientific papers, presented at national and international congresses, he has carried out since 1976 a fruitful work as academic of the Universidad de Santiago where he has taught undergraduate and graduate classes at the Department of Electrical Engineering. In this institution, he has had different functions, such as Department Director and Planning and Informatics Director.
In the year 2006, he was elected as President by the academics of this University. In the same period, he assumed to date the important mission of presiding over the State Universities Consortium, where he has put the State Public Higher Education in the citizens’ discussion arena.
Likewise, he has outstanding functions as Vice President of the Andean Region Countries of the Inter American University Organization, President of the Directorate of the CIEN AUSTRAL Center of Research in Nutrition and Food Technology and Sustainability, Vice President of the Matucana Cien Cultural Center, among others.
He has been visiting professor in national and Latin American universities and member of Editorial Committees in some publications.
He is the author of chapters of books and a number of papers in national and international journals and also of some publications in ISI indexed journals.
He has been awarded with the CIGRE Prize of the International Council of Big Electrical Networks, for professional trajectory to people of the 2007 energetic sector, and with the AIEE- IEEE International Prize of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers to the 2008 Outstanding Engineer.
In the year 2007, former President of the Republic of Chile Ms. Michelle Bachelet Jeria, appointed him as member of the Presidential Assistant Council for Higher Education and, in the year 2009, she appointed him as member of the Nuclear Energy Chilean Commission.
He impelled Law 20.374 of the Republic of Chile, which authorizes the State Universities to establish a retirement incentive procedure for their personnel. After years of taking this topic to all the pertinent instances (Parliament, Government), the Law was published in the Republic of Chile’s Official Journal, on September 7th, 2009; at present, this law allows a dignified retirement to hundreds of academics and administrative personnel from the State Universities of all the country.
As President of the USACH and President of the State Universities Consortium, he has worked intensively to achieve the recognition of the State public education through public policies that should preserve the accomplishment of essential values such as quality and opportunites equity.
The social responsibility and the social inclusion in higher education have been two of his big concerns and axes of his activities.
He was re- elected as President of the Universidad de Santiago for the period 2010- 2014.
Santiago, March 2011
