EAGE Workshop on Geothermal Energy- First EAGE Symposium and Exhibition on Geosciences for New Energies in America

3-5 December 2024 / Mexico City, Mexico


Meet our Keynote Speakers





Gerardo Hiriart Le Bert

GeoKeri

Dr. Gerardo Hiriart has a PhD in Naval Mechanical Engineering in 1973 from the US Navy's Naval Postgraduate School, California, and graduated from the Chilean Naval Polytechnical Academy. He was a Senior Researcher at the UNAM University's Institute of Engineer in Mexico. 

He worked for 26 years in the geothermal area of the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission and was the national director for 10 years. He led the design and construction of the geothermal power plants of Cerro Prieto IV (100MW), Los Azufres II (100MW), Tres Virgenes (10MW) and 15 backpressure plants of 5MW each. He developed the first Wind Electric farm in México with 7 units of 225kW each. 

Won the USA Geothermal Resources Council's “Pioneers award year 2000” and the Mexican Geothermal Association's Pathé award in 2024.  Led UNAM innovation Project IMPULSA IV on “Desalinating Sea water with renewable energy.”  Mexico's alternate representative for 7 years in International “Ocean Energy Program”, a special program of the International Energy Agency.  

Coordinated the Geothermal chapter on the SRREN 2024 for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change)The Civil Engineers College of Mexico made him an Honorary Member in 2024.  He is also a regular full member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering, of COMEXI, VIME2050, and the WFS chapter México. A visiting professor of Geothermal Power at the graduate division of the Santa Maria and Catholic Universities of Chile. He has written more than 30 papers on geothermal energy and holds six patents. He is the General Director of GeoKeri, a company he owns, actually consulting for the IDB and the founder of ENAL SA.



Rosa Maria Prol-Ledesma

UNAM

She has a Physics Degree from the Faculty of Sciences UNAM, PhD in Physics-Mathematics from the URSS Academy of Sciences, and Diploma in Geothermal Energy Technology from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. For 43 years she has been working as a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of UNAM. Emeritus Researcher of the National System of Researchers. Member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering of Mexico. To date, her work accounts for 154 publications, 2 books, 5 book chapters; three maps of geothermal resources of the Mexican Republic. Her work has more than 2900 citations. She has directed a total of 59 theses. Her publications include heat flux maps and geothermal provinces of Mexico. She has been visiting professor at Harvard University (Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences), USA, the University of Auckland (Geothermal Institute and Geology Department), New Zealand, and at the University of Barcelona, Spain. Her projects focus on the development of new geothermal exploration and exploitation methods, permanent CO2 capture in geothermal deposits, extraction of substances useful for geothermal fluids and the use of oil wells in the exploitation of geothermal energy.



Jerjes Porlles

Teverra 

Jerjes Porlles is the Geothermal Reservoir Engineer at TEVERRA. He holds a BSc in Petroleum Engineering from the National University of Engineering, Peru, an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Utah, and a Ph.D. (c) in Energy Engineering from the University of North Dakota. His PhD research focused on developing a complex numerical model of geothermal and unconventional reservoirs including natural fractures, generating a workflow to evaluate a sensitivity analysis and optimize Unconventional and Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) with vertical and horizontal wells at different patterns, and developing geomechanics experiments. He has 16 years of experience working with oil companies (Petrobras, Repsol, Schlumberger). At TEVERRA, he is currently working on modeling and optimizing a configuration to economically store a surplus of green energy from solar and wind in the subsurface and developing a reservoir model to efficiently extract heat from EGS by injecting water or supercritical CO2.



Magaly Flores Armenta

EPRI International

Magaly Flores Armenta is a Senior Technical Leader working for EPRI in the generation sector. She is a chemical engineer graduated from UMSNH in Mexico, with a master's degree in petroleum engineering from the Heriot Watt University in Scotland, specializing in geothermal reservoirs from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, with a Diploma in Development of Management Skills from the ITESM, Mexico, Diploma in International Leadership from the San Diego Global University in the United States of America and Diploma in Management Training by IPADE, Mexico. With more than 26 years of experience in the energy sector, she has a strong knowledge of the planning, evaluation and structure processes of infrastructure projects, generation, transmission and distribution processes and of the interrelationship that must exist between all areas to their achievement from conceptual engineering to energy dispatch and marketing. 

She has extensive experience coordinating multidisciplinary work groups for studies and new infrastructure projects with renewable energy and other nonconventional renewable energy sources. Her main expertise is related to geothermal reservoir evaluation, production analysis and stimulation of geothermal wells. She was appointed Geothermal Power Projects Manager in 2014 until the end of 2017, when she was appointed Network Business Deputy Director and in January 2019, as Specialized Engineering Manager, areas attached to the Mexican utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad(CFE). She was the first women to occupy those positions in the company. The M. en C. Magaly del Carmen Flores Armenta, was awarded in April 2018, with the "Pathé Award", awarded annually by the Mexican Geothermal Association to a professional who has outstandingly served for a minimum of 15 years in the field of Mexican geothermal energy and whose trajectory, merits or contributions are considered relevant. She was the first woman to receive this award and the thirteenth recipient of it. In July 2018, she was awarded the “Most Valuable People Leadership in Geothermal” award from the Latin American Geothermal Congress. She is part of the Directive Group of CIGRE Mexico since November 2021 and since 2022 she is part of the Mexican academy of engineering. 



Héctor Miguel Aviña Jiménez

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Dr. Aviña holds a PhD in engineering from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM) with a research topic of geothermal energy and the desalination of seawater in Mexico. Currently he is researcher at the UNAM Institute of Engineering. He has directed several studies related to the application of the alternative energies, mainly with low enthalpy geothermal resources. Additionally, since 2008, he has developed technical projects for the UNAM Institute of Engineering. At this time participates in the Mexican Center of Innovation in Geothermal Energy (CeMIE-Geo), leading a project on the linkage of companies and universities to develop businesses in Mexico using geothermal energy.

Dr. Aviña is founder and coordinator since 2012 of the multidisciplinary group iiDEA (Institute of Engineering, Desalination and Alternative Energies). The mission of the iiDEA applied research group is to contribute to the equitable and sustainable development of Mexico, based on the proper use of the various sources of renewable energy. During the last twelve years, iiDEA has focused its lines of research on providing comprehensive solutions to issues related to food, drinking water and access to electricity through the direct use of medium and low enthalpy geothermal energy. In addition to the above and in communion with the objectives of IIUNAM, the multidisciplinary training of about 150 specialized human resources at the undergraduate, master's, doctoral and postdoctoral levels has been promoted, both in the physical-mathematical and engineering areas and in the social sciences and humanities, of which Dr. Aviña has served as tutor of 50 of them.



Claudia Arango Galván

Instituto de Geofísica, UNAM

Claudia studied Geophysical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering at UNAM, where she graduated in 2001. She subsequently completed a PhD in Earth Sciences at the University of Barcelona, ​​where she obtained her degree in 2005. After completing her studies, she returned to Mexico and joined the Institute of Geophysics at UNAM, first as a postdoctoral fellow and later as a full-time researcher. Since then, she has actively participated in the Exploration Group at the Institute of Geophysics, focusing on the application of electrical and electromagnetic methods in resource prospecting as well as in the characterization of risk zones. In2007, she was awarded one of the “Scholarships for Women in Science”granted by L’Oréal, the Mexican Academy of Sciences and UNESCO for her studies in the application of electromagnetic techniques to the prospecting of water resources. In the area of ​​human resources training, since 2006she has been part of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Engineering and the Graduate Program inEarth Sciences at UNAM and has advised undergraduate and graduate students on topics related to geophysical exploration in the same, as well as in the graduate programs in earth sciences at CICESE and IPICYT.

She is a deputy inspector of the On-Site Inspection Division of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization and has actively participated in exploration projects of the Mexican Center for Innovation in Geothermal Energy and the Mexico-Europe GEMEX cooperation scheme for research into Enhanced Geothermal Systems and Superhot Geothermal Systems in Mexico. She is currently a B, C pride researcher and a member of the national system of researchers with level 1.



Heber Didier Diez

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Heber Diez is a Mexican electrical mechanical engineer with a master's degree in mechanical engineering and knowledge of geothermal reservoir engineering. He has several publications and designs of his authorship, he has edited in a magazine and participated in national and international projects. He is the current president of the Asociación Geotérmica Mexicana (AGM) and the person in charge,  Campo Geotérmico de Cerro Prieto, dependent on the Gerencia de Proyectos Geotermoeléctricos de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad. He has extensive experience and experience in the development of projects of various kinds, from conception to operation.