On February 12, 1998 the National Autonomous University of Mexico appointed Dr. Jorge A. Flores Valdes, Researcher Emeritus of the Institute of Physics, UNAM. This distinction is the fruit of a lifetime of work and dedication to academic life: research, teaching and dissemination of science. And who better than Jorge Flores to exemplify what academic excellence in these three pillars that sustain the life of our University.
Jorge, the researcher
Jorge Flores was born in Mexico City on February 1941. He studied physics at the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, where he graduated in 1962. In his professional thesis, conducted jointly with Dr. Pier A. Mello and directed by Dr. Marcos Moshinsky is studied theoretically tensor forces and the energy levels of atomic nuclei, using the transformation brackets developed by Marcos Moshinsky. This thesis resulted in his first research paper, along with fellow Pier Mello, published in 1963 in the journal Nuclear Physics . This article has been cited in the literature for articles published 20 years later, marks the beginning of a fruitful scientific career.
Three years later, in 1965, when he was only 24 years old, Jorge obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, also under the direction of Dr. Marcos Moshinsky. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the theory of groups and the particle-hole problem. This work resulted in three publications, which have received hundreds of citations in the literature.
Immediately after obtaining his doctorate, the new Dr. Flores performed during the two years following a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University in America.During this stay made applications of the model SU (3) a realistic nuclear interactions. This work carries out in collaboration with Rafael Perez Pascual, then his pupil.
On his return to Mexico continues to collaborate with his companion of many scientific adventures, Pier Mello and initiates fruitful collaborations around theoretical nuclear physics, with Germinal Cocho, Mauricio Fortes, Alfonso Mondragón and the late and beloved Thomas Brody.
In 1970 he traveled to France as a Visiting Professor at the Institute de Physique Nucléaire, University of Paris, Orsay. During this period (1970-1971), began a collaboration with Oriol Bohigas which results in two important articles published in the journal Physics Letters B in 1971 and have been cited over 150 times. In this work we study the statistical properties of Hamiltonian ESTOC sticos that model the interaction between two particles, this statistic became known in the literature as TBRE ( two-body random ensemble ).
During the early 70's, Jorge Flores continues to work on issues related to the statistical theory of nuclear reactions and the theory of random matrices, working closely with JB French, University of Rochester, MJ Giannoni Orsay and SSM Wong of the University Toronto. Towards the second half of the decade, this time collaborating with Estela Blaisten, J. Barojas and Ernesto Cota, Jorge enters the study of fluctuations in the electronic spectra of small particles licas met, for this purpose using techniques previously employed in the study of atomic nuclei. In 1972, the Academy of Scientific Research (now the Mexican Academy of Sciences), gives, for his career to date, the award in the area of Mathematics.
In the early 80's, Jorge venturing into a new field: the solid state of disordered systems. This line of research developed in collaboration with Jorge Joseph and Guillermo Monsivais, among others. The work of all, a whole decade is crowned with the appearance of one of the classic review articles of the 80's. I refer to the article: `` Random Matrix Physics: Spectrum and Strength Fluctuations,'' which was published in the prestigious American journal Reviews of Modern Physics in 1981. At that time it was thought that this article, besides being a review of the field, containing many new results would be useful to a somewhat limited field of specialists, mainly in the area of nuclear physics. But to the surprise of many, the techniques exposed there were central to understanding a whole new field of study that emerged in the late 70's and early 80's: Quantum Chaos. As a result of this unexpected turn in the development of physics, the article by Jorge Flores and his colleagues has been widely quoted in the literature. The September 19, 1985, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake shakes Mexico City. And not only the city but also to the conscience of its inhabitants. During the quake, hundreds of buildings collapsed or were badly damaged totally, as a result of this devastation, thousands of people were killed and thousands left homeless. In those days, of course not talking about something else, and the attention of many of the inhabitants of Mexico City focused on the disaster. Jorge Flores was no exception: a few days after the quake began appearing in newspapers the first capital city city maps showing the location of the buildings damaged during the quake. By observing these preliminary maps, Jorge saw a pattern of damage that caught her attention. Apparently, this pattern of damage was similar to the resonance patterns that arise in the physics of waves. Shortly after the earthquake, Jorge Flores began a new collaboration with Octavio Novaro and Thomas Seligman for understanding the peculiar phenomenology had been observed during the earthquakes of September 1985. This intense collaboration came a model of the seismic response of the Valley of Mexico, which allowed to understand in a coherent and unified the type of earthquake. This model consisted of analysis of the entrapment of longitudinal elastic waves in the Valley of Mexico. When trapped seismic waves generate a stationary wave pattern, which qualitatively explains the pattern of damage observed after the earthquake of September 19, 1985. Jorge Flores, Octavio Novaro and Thomas Seligman, sent the first results of this model to the prestigious British journal Nature , not only agreed to publish the work, but gave him the cover of the magazine at that time.
From that moment, Jorge Flores spent much of his time to analyze and to extend the model resonant Valley of Mexico. In 1987, when I was a graduate student, I was invited to participate in this exciting research project, which became my doctoral thesis. Over the next 10 years, published a series of papers in Geophysics and Seismology in which this model was extended. Today, Jorge Flores remains very active in this line of research, working with Octavio Novaro, Thomas Seligman and some students and, more recently, Cinna Lomnitz, Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM.
As a researcher, Jorge Flores has dabbled in many different areas: atomic nuclei, the structure of solids, the seismic response of sedimentary valleys, etc ... Even recently worked on optimization problems in Operations Research, as the traveling salesman problem. It reveals the great diversity of interests and vitality of Jorge as a researcher.
As a result of his career as a researcher, Jorge Flores has won several awards. It's National Researcher (Level III) of the National System of Researchers since 1985. He received the National University Research Sciences awarded by the UNAM, in 1988. Finally, the government of the Republic awarded him the National Prize of Sciences and Arts 1994 in the area of physical and mathematical sciences and natural.
Jorge, the discloser
The wide variety of topics of interest that grows Jorge Flores is manifested most clearly in his career as a popularizer of science. Throughout his career he has published dozens of popular articles on countless subjects. To illustrate this, simply select, arbitrarily, the titles of some of his popular articles: `` The shape of a drop of liquid,'' `` The Laplacian operator,'' `` A spinning wheel and does not slide ,'' `` The game of billiards'', `` ¨ do we know the atomic nucleus?'', `` Falling cat'', `` The center of percussion,'' `` ever had atmosphere the moon ?'', `` quasiparticles and collective modes'', `` Implications of the third law of thermodynamics,'' `` The investment of time,'' `` The magic of elliptical orbits,'' `` Images Albert Einstein,'' `` Games for parents and children,'' `` Guy and the Sinai billiard,'' `` crazy'' The Frisbee, etc., etc., etc. All of these items, totaling more than 80, were published in journals such as Physics , Nature , Science and Development , Science , Prenci, Spark , etc..
Jorge not only has written popular articles, but has also published over a dozen popular books. Along with Luis Estrada edited the book Perspectives in Biology and Physics , in two parts (1978 and 1989). Julia and C. Tagüeña wrote Elements of Calculation in 1980 and most recently in 1998 for High School Physics . With Rio Ferdinand, Concepts of Physics I: Classical Models (1986). With G. Anaya, Rigid Body Dynamics (1989). Within the series `` Science'' from Mexico, along with Guillermo Aguilar and Salvador Cruz, A Glimpse of Matter (1986). In this series, Jorge Flores wrote his own series, `` The Great Illusion,'' which refers to phenomena that have challenged experimentalists and are the great hope of many. The grand illusions, according to Jorge Flores, are: The Magnetic Monopole (1986), Quarks (1987), Gravitational Waves (1988), Cold Fusion (1992), the latter in collaboration with Arturo Menchaca.
Since its founding in 1982 to 1992 was in charge of `` program'' Sunday in the Science Academy of Scientific Research. For over a thousand sessions, hundreds of Mexican scientists gave lectures to children and youth throughout the country. Many of these sessions took place at the Museum of the Federal Commission of Electricity in the Bosque de Chapultepec. Most Sundays, there was Jorge Flores in the audience, supporting this unique project.
Jorge has held various positions related to the dissemination of science. From 1968 to 1984 he was member of the Editorial Board of Nature , a magazine dedicated to the dissemination of science. From 1969 to 1973 he served as Director of the Journal of Physics , during which he founded Applied Physics Supplement in 1972 and the Education Supplement in the same year. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the series `` Science'' from Mexico, since 1985 Editorial Board of Studies Economic Culture Fund since 1990 and the Editorial Committee of Science of the UNAM, since 1989. It has also been a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Science and Development (1983-1993) and member of the Advisory Council of Science since 1996. He founded and was the first president from 1987 to 1989 of the Mexican Society for the Dissemination of Science and Technology. In 1989, the rector Jose Sarukhan Kermez appointed him Director of the University Center for Communication Science of the UNAM, a position he held until 1997.
As if this were not enough, Jorge Flores in 1989 undertook the formidable task of building a science museum to compete with the best museums in the world.From 1989 to 1992, heading the Science Museum Project, Jorge led the conceptualization, design, construction and operation of more than 30 exhibits that allowed the construction of Universum, which opened its doors on December 12, 1992. Jorge was, without doubt, the creative force of Universum, and was its director from 1992 to 1997. From 1993 to 1997, he organized 94 exhibitions, and in total, has organized 130 exhibitions and temporary partial between 1990 and 1997, across the entire country. Note the `` exposure'' and Sport Science at the University Museum of Arts and Sciences, November 1990 to November 1991. To get an idea of the impact of this effort, suffice it to say that this single exposure to more than 192,000 people attended. In 1991, Jorge Flores was awarded the Alfonso Pruneda ``'', which is the highest academic distinction for the promotion of sport. Also in 1992 the `` exposure'' Science and Sport awarded the Sport and Olympism'' `` Joan Antonio Samaranch of the Cultural Olympiad in Barcelona 92.
Subsequently, the indefatigable Jorge Flores, was given the task of realizing another museum. This time it was a themed museum around the light, from the standpoint of both scientific and artistic. This beautiful Light Museum, opened in Mexico City in 1996, and Jorge Flores was its first director from 1996 to 1997.Throughout this massive outreach, Jorge Flores was awarded the Kalinga Prize for Science Communication 1992, UNESCO awarded annually to those who have excelled internationally in the noble task of disseminating science.
Jorge, the master
Jorge Flores has always considered a priority to human resource training and has been in direct contact with students of all levels. Since young children attending Sunday in `` Science'' to advanced students in graduate school. He has given, over his academic career, dozens of courses in the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, in both undergraduate and master's and doctoral degrees. He has also taught short courses at the universities of Princeton, Paris, Zaragoza, among others. He has also given numerous seminars and conferences in Mexico and abroad.
He has directed, sometimes in collaboration with some colleagues, 21 dissertation, and has provided advice in preparing the General Review of knowledge, to obtain a master's degree in Physics at UNAM to 18 students. Has also directed the following theses: Rafael Pascual Perez (1970), Enrique Yepez (1972); Clicerio Avilez (in collaboration, 1973), Ernesto Cota (jointly, 1976), Guillermo Monsivais (1980), Jose Luis Mateos (in collaboration, 1992).
Jorge, the organizer
Another facet of Jorge Flores is his capacity for organization and leadership, not only in the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but also outside it.
Jorge was Director of the Institute of Physics, UNAM from 1974 to 1982. In his years as director, Institute of Physics was overhauled with new equipment and laboratories; also were founded with the idea of decentralizing science, laboratories and Cuernavaca Ensenada. Currently both have independent laboratories of the Institute of Physics, the Laboratory of Ensenada is now the Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, and the Laboratory of Cuernavaca became very recently in the Physical Sciences Center, Jorge Flores which is its principal .
During the administration of President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, he served as Assistant Secretary of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Ministry of Education, during the period 1982-1985. It was in this period when Jorge Flores drove, along with Salvador Malo, the creation of the National System of Researchers, which was central to remedy in part the effects of the economic crisis at that time.
From 1973 to 1975 he served as president of the Mexican Society of Physics. In 1975 he was vice president and the next year the Academy of Scientific Research (now the Mexican Academy of Sciences). From 1987 to 1994 he was vice president of the International Center of Physics and Applied Mathematics. He is currently president of the International Center for Science in Cuernavaca, where scientists come together from many parts of the world to conduct workshops, seminars and meetings. From 1997 to date is the Coordinator of Graduate Physical Sciences at UNAM, and as recently as 1998, the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Francisco Barnes de Castro appointed Jorge Flores, director of the Center for Physical Sciences at Cuernavaca .
Jorge, the man
When you write a profile like this, one gets the impression that this is not one, but several people: first, a successful researcher at the Institute of Physics, UNAM, then one of the great popularizers of science in Mexico, and finally, of a prominent university official. What is really surprising is that this is one person: Jorge Flores.
I had the pleasure and the privilege of working closely with Jorge since I was his graduate student. Together with him I learned what doing research. Not only that, as Jorge Flores, by example, also teaches you what the discipline and love of work.
Currently, Jorge is entering a new stage in life, directing the brand new Center for Physical Sciences at UNAM in Cuernavaca. What other projects addressed in the future? I do not know. What I do know is that likely to be important and ambitious projects, like everything he undertakes.
Congratulations Jorge and deserved congratulations for your achievements!
José Luis Mateos
Institute of Physics, UNAM
Taken From Sociedad Mexicana de FisicaInstitute of Physics, UNAM
Translated with Google Translate.
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