Dean of the Lerma Campus for the term 2022-2026

Professor Gabriel Soto Cortes is Mexican, born in 1970 in the Federal District (now Mexico City). He received his degree in Physics Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) Azcapotzalco Campus in 1994, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering with a specialty in Hydraulics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in 1997 and 2001, respectively.

During his undergraduate studies, he was a teaching assistant, and in 1993 he joined the Mexican Petroleum Institute as a thesis student and scholarship holder, doing experimental work studying thermophysical properties and basic engineering applied to the reconfiguration of refineries. He received the Academic Merit Medal and the Research Diploma for his undergraduate studies. The National Academy of Engineering awarded him the recognition for the Best Master's Thesis 1997, and the UNAM the Honorable Mention for a research work related to the application of concepts of fuzzy mathematics to problems of water resources utilization. During his master's studies, he joined the Faculty of Engineering of the UNAM as a lecturer, a collaboration that lasted for five years until the end of his doctoral studies. He was a fellow of the Engineering Institute of the UNAM from 1997 to 2001. During that time, he participated in research applied to the dynamic simulation of the flooding process in river banks.

In 2001 he joined full time at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Azcapotzalco Campus. During the years of collaboration in the Division of Basic Sciences and Engineering of that academic Campus of the UAM, he was: Coordinator of Studies of Engineering Physics; member of the study committees of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and the postgraduate course in Process Engineering; Divisional Coordinator of Postgraduate Studies; Divisional Coordinator of Planning and Academic Secretary. In 2013 he began a sabbatical period in which he conducted a research stay at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, collaborating on the mechanistic modeling of two-phase flow in pressure pipes. In 2014 he was appointed Director of the Basic Sciences and Engineering Division of the Lerma Campus, a position he concluded in 2018.

Member of the National System of Researchers since 2002 and recognition of Desirable Profile PROMEP-PRODEP since 2003. He develops teaching, research, and consulting on topics related to Hydraulics and its applications, primarily in flood prevention (free surface flow) and hydraulic safety (transport of hazardous substances in pipelines). Since his definitive position at UAM (2001), he has been responsible and collaborator of 18 agreements with external funding, responsible for four research projects (two of them with external funding), and collaborator in nine others (five with external funding). Author and co-author of more than 100 research products, as well as advisor and co-advisor of several terminal projects and undergraduate and graduate theses.