In February of this year, Turkey and Syria suffered a series of major earthquakes. In that scenario, Dr. Luis Moya, professor of the tenure track program at PUCP, joined the research team of the EERI (Earthquake Engineering Research Institute) in an inspection mission with the purpose of evaluating the consequences of the earthquake in Turkey, a country that registered more than 40 thousand deaths.
“Turkey has just gone through a tragic experience and our objective is to learn the lesson.My personal interest in the project lies in evaluating the collapsed building sand their role in the obstruction of roads, which is very important for first aid activities,” says the researcher.
Dr. Moya says this is a research work that started from the first day of the disaster by taking satellite and aerial images together with Professor Luis Ceferino from the New York University.
It should be noted that Professor Ceferino and researcher Yvonne Merino from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,members of the public health subcommittee of the EERI, “coordinated with authorities and institutions in Turkey to let us know about their experiences,”says the Peruvian researcher.
My personal interest in the project lies in evaluating the collapsed buildings and their role in the obstruction of roads, which is very important for first aid activities.”
Luis Moya, Ph.D.
Professor of the Tenure Track Program at PUCP
It should also be noted that the EERI has a leading role worldwide in seismic research and is supported on three pillars: research, education and dissemination. “It is a non-profit organization that, thanks to donations, has funded many researchers to learn from seismic risk and earthquake resilience,” says Luis Moya.
“PUCP is taking responsibility for transmitting to Peru what was learned in Turkey. We have projects and activities scheduled in addition to the research proposal that we submitted to the Annual Research Project Bidding Contest - PUCP 2023”,he concludes.
Luis Moya,Ph.D., professor of the Department of Engineering, has a career devoted to seismic research, a topic that is naturally relevant in Peru. How did you lead this way?
The researcher points out two moments: the first, when his undergraduate professor shared his lectures from a researcher's perspective prompting him to seek to have a similar profile.
Afterwards, he applied for an opening position at the Peruvian-Japanese Center for Seismic Research and Disaster Mitigation (CISMID) of the National University of Engineering (UNI) as a research assistant to perform his pre-professional internship. “I was accepted under supervision of Professor Ricardo Proaño, who was the first person who trained me to have a profile as a researcher in seismic engineering,” he concludes.
At PUCP, in 2021, the Program of Attraction of Young Professors with a Full-Time Position or tenure track was designed, a process of hiring young researchers and creators renowned nationally and internationally that allows to continue promoting quality training.
This program is under the system of meritocracy, transparency by openly communicating to the entire community about their selection criteria and beneficiaries, and accountability.
