The Conference program will be updated regularly
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Pablo Valenzuela, PhD
Cofounder and Director of Fundación Ciencia para la Vida, President of BIOS Chile IGSA, Professor of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and of the Universidad Andrés Bello, Head of the Instituto Milenio de Biología Fundamental y Aplicada (MIFAB). Board member of several biotechnology companies in USA. Expert in the molecular biology of infectious diseases, vaccines and all aspects of biotechnological product development. Founder and former Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Chiron Corporation, California. National Award in Applied and Technological Sciences, 2002.
Chris Lowe, PhD
The principal focus of his biotechnology research programme over the last 30 years has been the high value - low volume sectors of pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and diagnostics. The work not only covers aspects of biochemistry, microbiology, chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, electronics and chemical engineering, but also the entire range from pure science to strategic applied science, some of which has significant commercial applications and had led to the establishment of 7 spin-out companies. He has 250 publications, 7 monographs and 40 patents. He is actively involved in many collaborations worldwide, is on the editorial boards of a number of academic journals, sits on a number of research council, grant awarding and government committees, and is active in various legal and entrepreneurial roles.
Benny Dembitzer
Is an economist who has spent almost 40 years working on grassroot development projects across Africa, in Pakistan and Indonesia. In 1972, whilst working for the Economist Intelligence Unit as a researcher, Benny set up what was to become the first ever fair trade shop. He went on to run a large independent trust encouraging the development of small scale industries in Africa, and then with the United Nations Development Programme, which led to a year long assignment in Ethiopia. In 1984-85 he was the European Director of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the winners of that year’s Nobel Peace Prize. After the award, Benny went back to Ethiopia and became involved in the famine relief operations. Since 1985 Benny has worked as a development consultant. He drafted the United Nations 5-year development plans for the Gambia and Liberia, and led missions to Indonesia, Lesotho and Guinea (Conakry). Benny has run the annual (Global Partnership) Fair Trade Fair since 1987, and in 2001 launched the Global Development Forum, the annual Global Development Conference held in London and the quarterly Global Development Courses for development agency staff. Benny is a visiting lecturer in economics at the University of Greenwich and supervises postgraduate dissertations at the London Metropolitan University.
WORKSHOP
Yan Bello Méndez, PMP
is an internacional consultant, coach, speaker & trainer... with significant expertise in strategic consulting, organizational maturity, effective project management & organizational change leadership. His professional mission consist in "Significantly contributing to the improvement of effectiveness & capability of individuals, teams and organizations" and it has been his prime motivation to create SpaceMinds, a global organization "open to continuous learning", with the vision of offering high-level value to clients and organizations around the world.
SENIOR SPEAKERS
Paola Arias, PhD
Graduated from Universidad de Santiago de Chile in 2008. Currently she has a postdoctoral position at Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Her studies are focused in High Energy and Particle Physics. Among other projects she participates in the ALPS collaboration experiment, searching for new (very-light) weakly interacting particles.
Prof. Ricardo Baeza-Yates
Is VP of Research for Europe and Latin America, leading the Yahoo! Research labs at Barcelona, Spain and Santiago, Chile, and also supervising the lab in Haifa, Israel. His research interests includes algorithms and data structures, information retrieval, web mining, text and multimedia databases, software and database visualization, and user interfaces.
Marcelo Espinoza, PhD.
Was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1973. He has obtained the following degrees: PhD in Electrical Engineering, K.U. Leuven (2006) Master in Artificial Intelligence, K.U.Leuven (2002) Master of Science in Applied Economics, U. de Chile (1998) Civil Engineer, U. de Chile (1998). Following his PhD he worked as postdoctoral researcher at the SCD-Research Division of the Electrical Engineering Dept. of the K.U.Leuven, conducting research related to nonlinear modelling using kernel methods, with applications to real life problems requiring identification, modelling and forecasting. Currently he is working as Senior Analyst at GDF Suez.
SHORT TALK
Carolina Salinas Núñez
Bachelor of Oceanography from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and Master of Oceanography from Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Spain. Currently PhD candidate in Oceanography at the ULPGC. Her Master Studies have been funded by scholarship “Fundación Carolina” from Goverment of Spain and her PhD Studies by Scholarship “Becas Chile” from the Goverment of Chile and “Proyecto INNOVA Canarias” from ULPGC Universitary Fundation. Her interest research includes: Antarctic system, Satellite data, heat fluxes, Ocean dinamics and programation.
Ricardo Rivera PhD(c)
Received his MSc in Applied Physics from the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (Chile) in 2006, studying rheological models for breast carcinoma by ultrasound techniques. He is currently doctoral candidate in physics at the Universidad de Zaragoza - Spain. He performs his pre-doctoral research at the Instituto de Ciencias de Materiales de Aragón (ICMA), Joint centre Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) in the field of physiological optics, working on methods to improve optical aberrometry techniques using computer simulations, with application to measurements of the optical quality of the human eye in vivo. Is recipient of a scholarship Alban (Latin America High Level Scholarships Nº E07D402088CL) awarded by the European Union and member of the Spanish Optometry Network (SON).
SENIOR SPEAKERS
Mauricio Osses, PhD
Consultant for the International Sustainable Systems Research Center (ISSRC) and Sistemas Sustentables. PhD graduated from Department of Fuel and Energy, University of Leeds, U.K. (1993-1997). The current research and professional activities are focused on emission inventories from mobile sources, experimental measurements of vehicle emissions for the development of emission factors, pollutant reduction technologies, urban traffic activity and driving dynamics, impact of fuel composition on vehicle emissions, modeling of vehicle emissions under urban conditions and their connection with air dispersion models.
Ernst Bucher, PhD
Was Professor in charge of Research in the University of Geneva. He has worked as a member of technical staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, USA. During the years 1974 until 2002 was Professor for Applied Solid State Physics, University of Konstanz, and leader of the "Center II for Solar Energy". Scientific advisor at ZSW, HMI, FORSOL, Höchst and Bell Laboratories. Since his retirement, he works as a scientific technical advisor for several companies in Switzerland, Germany, the USA, South Africa and Latin America in the professional area of solar energy.
SHORT TALK
Msc. Claudio Fuentes Grünewald
Is currently work in their PhD Thesis in Sciences and Environmental Technology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, works as a scholarship student in the Marine Science Institute – Scientific Research Council of Spain (ICM-CSIC), their PhD studies are funded with a grant from the National Research Council of Chile (CONICYT). He carries out a research with the aim to the use of specific microalgae for biodiesel production. He obtained his professional title from the Universidad Arturo Prat, Iquique, Chile, in Aquaculture Engineer in 200. 
Juan José Sarralde
Is a PhD student at the Department of Architecture in the University of Cambridge, working under supervision of Professor Koen Steemers, as part of the research team in a project named Energy Efficient Cities initiative (EECi). He studied architecture in Valdivia (UACh), Chile and worked as a designer in Aachen, Germany, before moving to Cambridge for the MPhil in Environmental Design, in 2008. His research focuses on energy efficiency at the scale of neighbourhoods. His main research interests are related to the impact of urban configuration on the viability of technologies for renewable sourced on-site energy generation at the cluster level.
SENIOR SPEAKERS
Dr. Cristóbal Uauy
Project leader of the Crop Genetics group at the John Innes Centre in the UK and Visiting Research Fellow at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) at Cambridge. His studies are related to the quantitative variation that explains the inheritance of many of the most important traits related to food and fiber production, especially wheat. Currently, his group uses molecular genetics approaches to identify genes, to develop genetic resources to enable effective translational research from model systems to crop species and to enhance the pipeline to translate this new knowledge into improved wheat varieties for growers, industry and consumers. His work includes the positional cloning of genes controlling senescence and grain protein content in wheat (Gpc-B1) as well as partial resistance to yellow rust (Yr36). 
Juan Carlos Fontecilla, PhD
Biochemistry degree obtained in 1974 from the Universidad de Concepcion. Ph.D. degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1979. Title of the thesis: "The crystals structure of a neurotoxic protein from the scorpion centruroides sculpturatus at 3 Å resolution." Post-doctoral fellow in the Kemisk Institut, Aarhus, Denmark (1980-81). 1982-1986 Charge de recherches CNRS, 1987-1990. Directeur de recherches 2eme classe CNRS, Marseilles, France. 1991-2004 Directeur de recherches 1er classe CEA, Grenoble, France. 2005-today, Directeur de recherches "Classe exceptionnelle", CEA, Grenoble, France.
SHORT TALK
Felipe Zilly, PhD
In 2009, Felipe Zilly joined Viering, Jentschura & Partner, one of Germany’s biggest patent attorney firms. Since then he is training to become a patent attorney. At the moment he is mainly involved with patent and utility model prosecution. Felipe Zilly graduated from the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany, in biochemistry in 2002 (MSc equivalent). Subsequently he carried out his doctoral studies in the field of molecular neurobiochemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. In 2006, Felipe Zilly comleted the studies and was awarded with the Ph.D.. Until 2009 he worked as staff scientist in the field of biocatalysis and enzyme engineering at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
SENIOR SPEAKERS
Ricardo Araya, MRCPsych, PhD
Is Professor of Psychiatry at University of Bristol. He graduated from Universidad de Chile Medical School and did his psychiatric training in the Maudsley Hospital in London. He has a PhD in psychiatric epidemiology from the Institute of Psychiatry in London. He has two main areas of research interest: 1) research to improve the prevention and treatment of common mental disorders in primary care and schools, especially large pragmatic trials, and 2) research on the aetiology of common mental disorders, especially longitudinal studies (birth cohorts) exploring interactions between social, psychological and biological factors and developmental transitions throughout the life cycle. 
Fabien Marchand PhD
Is a lecturer and researcher at the Medicine school in Clermont-Ferrand, France in the Inserm U766 laboratory. He is interested in the understanding of supraspinal structures involvement in pain processing. During his PhD he investigated the mechanism of action of antidepressant in neuropathic pain conditions in collaboration with two research laboratories based in Santiago thanks to the Ecos Sud Conicyt Program. Following his PhD he worked 4 years as post-doc in Prof. McMahon lab at King’s College London studying the involvement of glia and glial-released factors in neuropathic pain and the role of kinases in inflammatory pain.
Professor Rodolfo Miralles Lozano, PhD
He holds the largest number of international publications on dental research within Chile. He works as a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Universidad de Chile. In particular, he is responsible for the Laboratory of Research in Oral Physiology. Furthermore he teaches in PhD and Master Programs, and Physiology for undergraduate students at the Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad de Chile. His scientific investigation is focused on the EMG as a method for the diagnosis and evaluation of the temporomandibular dysfunctions.
Gabriela Repetto Lisboa, MD
Currently she is the Director of the Center of Human Genetics implemented by the common efforts of the Clínica Alemana and Universidad del Desarrollo, and she also works as clinical geneticist at Clinica Alemana y el Hospital Padre Hurtado.
She graduated in Medicine at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and holds a PhD in Investigation in Paediatrics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. There she received a fellowship for a subspecialization programm in Genetics y Metabolic Diseases in the Children´s Hospital de Boston-Harvard University.
Eugenio Rodríguez Balboa, PhD
After finishing his studies in Physics, Psychology and Neurobiology at the Universidad de Chile, he obtained in 2000 his doctoral degree in Cognitive Sciences from the University of Paris VI. Since 2002 he was employed by the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, and since 2007 Rodriguez has been appointed professor at the Universidad Católica de Chile. There he founded the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience. His current interests include recording and analyzing (EEG) the neural dynamics, and the neural correlates of consciousness and volitional acts.
Dr. Christian Kell
Graduated in Medicine at the University Frankfurt. He performed his thesis in chronobiology on a transcription factor of the cAMP pathway and studied its interaction with melatonin. He spent his Postdoc at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and specialized in functional imaging of physiological and pathological speech production. Currently, he focuses on the more fundamental principles of interhemispheric and interlobar interactions underlying executive control. He co-organized the first German-Chilean Neuroscience Summer School on Brain Clocks and Rhythms in Santiago 2010.
Dr. Alejandro Arenas-Pinto
Medical doctor qualified at Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) currently working as Senior Clinical Research Associate at the Centre for Sexual Health & HIV Research, University College London (UCL) and the Clinical Trials Unit, Medical Research Council (MRC). His main research interests are HIV treatment and adverse effects induced by anti-retrovirals. His PhD focussed on clinical and epidemiological factors associated with anti-retroviral therapy (ART)-induced mitochondrial dysfunction. In recent years he has also been working on ART clinical trials, including academic UK studies led by the MRC and international studies such as START, an NIH-INSIGHT trial. He is the coordinator of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between UCV and UCL for joint research in HIV and Sexual Health. In this context, his main objective is to facilitate collaborative initiatives between UK/European and Venezuelan/Latin-American academics. Finally, he also collaborates with LATINA, a Latin American cohort of patients living with HIV/AIDS where Chilean centres are also participating.
SENIOR SPEAKERS
Thomas Tufte, PhD
Dr. Tufte is a professor in Communication at Roskilde University, Denmark; MA in Cultural Sociology and PhD in Communication from University of Copenhagen. From 2009-2013 he is principal investigator of the research project ‘Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa’. He is also co-director of Ørecomm – a binational research platform on communication and glocal change; and director of the national research network ‘Glocal NOMAD’ (Network on Media and Development). Prof. Tufte has lectured and worked at universities and with communication consultancy in more than 25 countries, has written or edited 11 books and more than 50 journal articles and chapters in anthologies.
Guillermo Guzman Dumont
Lecturer and director of External Relations and Communications at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Architect UBB Chile (1993), studies of MSc Renewable Energy & Architecture and postgraduate certificate in higher education at the University of Nottingham (2000). Research in Sustainable Energy Technologies integration to architectural design, post occupancy evaluation, pedagogic approaches in architecture related to identity, globalisation and ethics. One of the principal investigators of the Creative Energy Homes project and in the UK entry for the Solar Decathlon Europe. Visiting professor at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile's diploma in Sustainable Architecture, UBB and UTFSM.
SHORT TALK
Marisol Basilio
She is a qualified Psychologist (2007) from Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. She is currently completing her Ph.D. (since 2007)in psychological development at Universidad Autonóma de Madrid, in Spain, mentored by Dr. Cintia Rodríguez. She has been a visiting scholar (2009) at the Psychology & Neuroscience in Education group at the University of Cambridge, UK, guided by Dr. David Whitebread. Her thesis research is focused on early development and promotion of self-regulatory skills. Her approach, applies Vygotsky’s ideas of this progress from other to self-regulation to early development.
Andrea Cerda
Sociologist from Universidad Católica de Chile (2000). She did a MA in Governance and Politics at the University of Amsterdam (2002) and MA in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University (2009) in the Netherlands, where she is currently enrolled as a PhD student. She is particularly interested in national imaginaries and identity issues in an increasingly culturally diverse and interconnected world. At present her research pays special attention to the evolution of those imaginaries constructed in national pavilions by developing countries at World Expos. Her current study case is Chile.
Herman Elgueta
Psychologist from Universidad de La Frontera. He did a MSc in Psychological Research at the University of Sheffield, where he is currently a PhD student. His research focuses on the evaluations that individuals make about hazards and industrial developments; the role of social identities on the formation of these impressions; and the subsequent acceptance or mitigation-oriented behaviours. His thesis centres on the case of acceptance and opposition towards power plants in Chile.
Carolina Pinto Baleisan
Is PhD candidate in Urban Studies at the University of Paris-Est, her dissertation compares the path of Latin-American postgraduate students in France and the United States. Graduate of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Sociology (2003) and Master in City and Mobility of the Ecole de Ponts (2008), her studies have been funded by scholarship program “Presidente de la República” from the Government of Chile. Her research interest includes international migration, foreign students, social mobility, latina/o populations and urban sociology.
Lelya Troncoso Pérez
Psychologist from the Universidad de Valparaíso and Master in critical social psychology from the Universidad ARCIS. During her studies she got more interest in gender and sexuality issues. Her, master’s thesis examined juvenile sexualities in Chile. Currently she is studying a Master in gender studies at Lund University, Sweden. There she has focused on postcolonial and poststructuralist feminist theories and antiracist feminism, with a focus on Latin American and third world feminism as well as an intersectional approach to gender.
Andrés Otero
He is currently studying his PhD in Economics at the University College London. His research is focused in Applied Microeconomics, mainly in Labour Economics and Development. After finishing his studies at the University of Chile, BA and MSc in economics, he worked in the Department of Economics of the University of Chile as a lecturer, teaching Econometrics and Macroeconomics and doing research in topics related with the Chilean Social Security System.
Cecilia Ibarra
I am a doctoral student at the University of Sussex on my second year. My research is multi-disciplinary; I am looking at the relationship of doctoral graduates with industry learning systems. The study focuses on the interface between individuals’ work trajectories and industry learning systems, in three strategic economic sectors from the natural resource based industries in Chile - copper mining, aquaculture and fruit growing. It is based on the narratives of 24 individuals’ work experiences from their doctoral graduation until now, some of the narratives start in the 1980’s. The aim is to develop an understanding of the processes of interaction and mutual transformation involved. The main research question for the study is: How are the work trajectories of doctoral graduates related to industry learning systems? I have doctoral supervision from the Department of Education and from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU).
