EERI is pleased to announce that the 2024 recipient of the Shah Family Innovation Prize is Luis A. Pinzón (M.EERI 2016), in recognition of research and leadership accomplishments that have already made significant positive impacts in the field of earthquake engineering. EERI annually awards the Shah Family Innovation Prize to a recipient under 35 years of age to reward their creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in the field of earthquake risk mitigation and management. The prize is funded by a generous gift from the Shah family.
Dr. Pinzón is specialist in engineering seismology and seismic risk mitigation, and currently serves as the Director of the Scientific and Technological Research Center at the Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua (USMA) in Panama City, Panama. His research has made creative contributions to the influence of directionality and site response on seismic hazard and developed an innovative time domain deconvolution algorithm for accurately predicting complex site conditions.
The Shah Prize Committee also noted the impact of his public enterpreneurship, including the development of a real-time Panama Accelerographic Network for monitoring and assessing seismic activity, data from which is now streamed through the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN). Establishing this network will have lasting impacts for characterizing seismic hazard in Panama. He is also a member of Panama’s National Research System and the Permanent Advisory Committee for the analysis, study, and application of the Panamanian Structural Design Code, and created the first course on seismology for engineers in Panama at USMA.
Dr. Pinzón holds a Civil Engineering degree from USMA, a postgraduate degree in Seismology from the University of Chile, and a master’s and doctorate in Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He has authored over 20 scientific articles in international journals, and has previously been recognized with the Best Doctoral Thesis in Geophysics award from the José García Siñeriz Foundation and the 2023 Alumnus of the Year in Science, Technology, and Research award from USMA.
