About

Ciro Galo Menéndez Alcazar, was a distinguished IAHR Individual Member since 1978. He was born in the town of Jipijapa, in the Coastal Region of the Ecuador on July 14, 1942. In 1964, he moved to the city of Quito, initially as a student and then as a permanent resident. He graduated of Civil Engineer at the National Polytechnic School in 1970. There, he formed his family and developed a fruitful professional life, linked to teaching and research at the Polytechnic School. He obtained a Master´s degree, in hydraulic structures at the International Institute for Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, IHE, Delft, The Netherlands. He took various international courses on different topics, in the former Yugoslavia, Spain, Argentina, Israel, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. That served him, not only in the his engineering practice, but also, fundamentally, in his teaching and research activities he maintained for more than 30 years at the National Polytechnic School in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, to which he devoted most of his dynamism, energy and effort. At the Polytechnic he developed a meritorious career, teaching under and postgraduate students. He took several academic and administrative positions, Head of Hydraulics Department, Dean of the Faculty, and Director of the Centre for Research and Studies of Engineering of Water Resources CIERHI, considered by him as his second home. He mentored numerous students, many of whom presently lead the activities in the field in his home country. In the professional sphere, he had a great activity related to the design of hydraulic works, of a diverse nature, from design of drainage network, including the drainage system of the International airport of the city of Quito, river basin management, water supply projects in most large cities of Ecuador, irrigation and drainage projects. He also served his country as Consultant, in the Supervision of hydraulic studies and construction of large hydraulic works for multipurpose projects. Physical modeling was perhaps his great passion; Ciro spent much of his life participating in many projects. He conducted experimental studies of very large hydraulic works currently in operation, for hydroelectric projects, such as the “Coca Codo Sinclair”, the country´s largest, 1500 Mw of installed capacity. Others large facilities as San Francisco, Guangopolo and Amaluza. Physical modeling of the sewerage system of the Metropolitan District of Quito. Dam spillways for multipurpose projects such as Chongon, La Esperanza, Diversion of the Daule River, all in operation. The latter being his last experimental study, prior to his retirement from the National Polytechnic School. Since 1978, he attended the IAHR LAD Congresses, almost without interruption. Between 1997 and 2015, he was present at all biannual IAHR world congresses; he also participated in many other international events. He was Chairman of the IAHR Latin American Regional Division, and member of the Latin America Leadership team. In 1996, he became member of the LOC of the XVII IAHR LAD Congress, celebrated in Guayaquil. He was ready to attend the XXVII IAHR to be held next September in Lima, but because of his sudden departure, he will be missed there. No doubt Ciro passing is a great loss for Ecuador, for his many professional activities he developed in his home country and for the hundreds of students he formed during his long teaching activity, and for the IAHR community, particularly for the Latin American Division, where he was always very active and helpful in the success of many of the congresses. Many of us who had the privilege to enjoy his friendship will agree that we lost a great colleague, and we will remember him as a humble, kind man, quite and charming person. The members of the IAHR family wish to convey their great esteem for Ciro, as a very IAHR active member, and as a friend and offer their sincere condolences to his family. He surely will be missed in our hearts. Jacinto Rivero, May 12th 2016

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