The association industrial engineers of Andalusia Recognises INERCO’S founders for their services to the development of engineering

The Official Association of Industrial Engineers of Western Andalusia (COIIA for its Spanish abbreviation) has awarded Luis Salvador and Vicente Cortés, the founders of INERCO, with the honourable mention for the Development of Engineering in Andalusia. The award is a recognition of the work done by INERCO’s president (Salvador) and honorary president (Cortés), professors at the Seville School of Engineers and distinguished researchers, who have published numerous papers in the more than thirty years of their professional lives they have dedicated to the company.

The committee, made up of delegates of the association from Cádiz, Córdoba, Huelva and Seville, informed the association’s Governing Board that they had selected Luis Salvador and Vicente Cortés as deserving joint recipients of the award. This distinction demonstrates the brilliance of the teaching and professional careers of both men, industrial engineers and developers of INERCO, the first spin-off from the University of Seville in 1984.

During his speech, INERCO’s honorary president Luis Salvador (*) highlighted the “decisive role” of industrial engineers “in the economic and social development of regions, contributing to the creation of stable, quality employment,” with visible examples in Andalusia being the development poles in Huelva and Algeciras.

INERCO president Vicente Cortés (**), in turn, emphasised engineering’s contribution to sustainability, which in his opinion “should receive the recognition it deserves”. In this vein, he signalled INERCO’s link to engineers’ capacity “to create compatibility between exploiting resources, creating wealth and employment and protecting the environment,” acknowledging that “INERCO owes its position today specifically to the capabilities of industrial engineers.”

(*) Luis Salvador is a professor of general chemical technology at the University of Seville, founder and director of the Territorial Institute of Hygiene and Safety at Work (1971–1978), founder and director of the AICIA Research Association (ESSII Seville 1980–1983), director of the Higher School of Industrial Engineering of the University of Seville (1983–1987) and director of the Department of Environmental Chemical Engineering of the University of Seville (1987–1997).

(**) Vicente Cortés is a professor of chemical Engineering at the University of Seville. He has over 35 years’ experience in R&D of technology to reduce the environmental impact of electricity generation, oil refining and the petrochemicals sector, with six patents to his name. He has also been the director of the CIUDEN Carbon Capture Programme and is an expert advisor to European Commission Directorate General for Energy.