Alberto Bustani Adem

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Bustani and the second or maternal family name is Adem.

Alberto Bustani Adem (born in Mexico City, 1954) is a Mexican academic and entrepreneur of Lebanese descent (Boustani). His grandparents emigrated from Lebanon at the beginning of the 20th century, in the second period of Lebanese immigration to Mexico,^[1][2] and dedicated to commerce in hardware and the workwear clothing industry. On his mother's side, a family of notable scholars, mathematicians José Adem, es:Julián Adem, Alejandro Adem, Luis Casian Adem,^[3] physicist Esbaide Adem^[4] and cardiologist Abdo Bisteni Adem.^[5][6]

Education

Bustani holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (1976) and a doctorate degree (PhD) from the University of Sheffield (1987). His PhD thesis focused in studying the steam gasification of a reactive coke to produce synthesis gas, which involved the design and construction of a pressurized fluidized bed reactor at pilot plant scale.^[7]

Career

He worked for 25 years at Tecnologico de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education), where he held different academic and administrative positions (1987 to 2012).He was President of the main campus of Tecnologico de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education) from 2001 to 2010.^{[8][9][10][11]}

He was a member of the advisory board of WWF Mexico,^[12][13] a branch of World Wide Fund for Nature, from 2004 to 2015.

Research and Technological Development

From 1979 to 1983 Bustani worked in research and development for HYL (now TENOVA HYL of Techint Group), then a subsidiary of HYLSA (es:Ternium Hylsa), a steel company based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico in the area of direct reduction of iron ores. During this time he was awarded with a patent of a direct reduction process.^[14]

In 1998, he worked in the development of the Vehicle End-of-Life Model (VEOL) ^[15] used to analyze the trends in the automotive industry in the United States, and the recycling rates of vehicles overtime by tracking twenty-four different materials and twenty-six assemblies.

In 2000, he analyzed the controversy surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) centered on issues that seem not to be directly related with trade itself, such as its impact on the environment, labor, worker health and safety, and immigration. The results were presented in April 2000^[16] at the Call to Action issued on the authority of The Aspen Institute and its Program on Energy, the Environment, and the Economy.

In June, 1996, the NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation retained^[17] Dr. Alberto Bustani Adem to report on the Status of pollution prevention in North America (Mexico Section); to identify common elements and needs; and to develop recommendations to the commission on how it might proceed in implementing its mandate in this area.

In 1997 he was part of the NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) policy group who assisted the CEC Secretariat^[18] in developing a North American agenda for the control of air and marine pollution and develop recommendations regarding transboundary and long-range transport of air pollutants^[19]

He studied the problem created in Mexico in the 1980s when a shift from natural gas to heavy fuel oil in industrial processes increased emissions of air pollutants significantly, and later in the 1990s the benefits of substituting leaded for unleaded gasoline^[20]

He is author of section 1 of the report “The Fundamentals of Gasification and its Technology" developed for The Watt Committee on Energy Working Group on Gasification and published in 1989 ^[21][22]

Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education

He was President of the main campus of Tecnologico de Monterrey (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education) from 2001 to 2010.^{[8][9][10][11]} During his tenure he implemented a knowledge-based research grant system ("Cátedras de Investigación").^[23]

He was a strong advocate of student internationalization and the creation of multicultural communities. He presented his perspectives on this at the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) in March 2013.^[24]

In 2001 he supported an initiative at the university called the "Sustainable Campus Program", which was developed to encompass a wider, more inclusive view of sustainable development in the teaching, learning, research, outreach and operational activities of the Monterrey Campus.^[25]

In 2002, he participated in the working group “The challenge to academia: preparing the next generation of leaders”,^[26] organized by The Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS).^[27]

While at the university, Bustani also held the position of Dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture (1998–2001), Director of the Center for Environmental Quality (1992–1998) and Head of the Chemical Engineering Department (1987–1992).^[28]

Bustani also served as vice president for Planning and Academic Development at the Tecnologico de Monterrey System^[29] from 2011 to 2012.^[30]

Awards and recognitions

The University of Sheffield granted him the Degree of Doctor in Engineering Honoris Causa in November 2005.^[31][32][33]

He was awarded the Romulo Garza Award Prize (Premio Romulo Garza) on teaching and research in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico in 1992.^[34]

Bustani was the keynote speaker at Virginia Tech's graduate commencement ceremony on May 11, 2007, the school's first international commencement speaker.^[35][10][36]

References

1. Marín Guzmán, Roberto; Zéraoui, Zidane (2003). Arab immigration in Mexico in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: assimilation and Arab heritage. ISBN 978-0-9636882-2-4. OCLC 53843092.^{[page needed]}
2. Velcamp, Theresa Alfaro (May 2005). "Arab Immigration in Mexico in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Assimilation and Arab Heritage / A Century of Palestinian Immigration into Central America: A Study of Their Economic and Cultural Contributions". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 37 (2): 266–269. doi:10.1017/S0020743805232063. ProQuest 195592671.
3. "Luis Casian".
4. "Nuestra Gente -".
5. Boo, Guadalajara; Fernando, José (September 2011). "Dr. Abdo Bisteni Adem". Archivos de cardiología de México. 81 (3): 283–284.
6. "A. Bisteni | Semantic Scholar".
7. Bustani-Adem, Alberto (1986). A pilot plant study of coke gasification using steam only under adiabatic conditions (Thesis). OCLC 271072996.
8. . Archived from the original on 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
9. "International Engineering Program". Retrieved 2020-04-18.
10. "President of Monterrey Technological Institute to deliver Graduate Commencement address". www.vtnews.vt.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
11. . Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2012-04-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. (in Spanish). WWF Mexico. Archived from the original on 4 January 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
13. "WWF México".
14. US 4556417, Martinez-Vera, Enrique R. & Bustani-Adem, Alberto, "Process for the direct reduction of iron ores", published 1985-12-03, assigned to Hylsa SA 
15. Cobas-Flores, Elisa; Bustani, Alberto; MacKay, Patrick W.; Ramirez, Berenice; Yester, Susan G.; Sullivan, John L.; Williams, Ronald L. (1998). "An Analysis of the Vehicle End-of-Life in the United States". SAE Technical Paper Series. Vol. 1. doi:10.4271/982213.
16. "The Mexico-U.S. Border Environment and Economy - A Call to Action to make the Mexico-US Border Region a model of Bi-National Cooperation for Sustainability" (PDF). The Aspen Institute. April 2000.
17. "Status of Pollution Prevention in North America" (PDF). Commission for Environmental Cooperation. June 1996.
18. "Secretariat".
19. "Continental Pollutant Pathways" (PDF). Commission for Environmental Cooperation. 1997.
20. Bustani, Alberto; Cobas, Elisa (1993). "The Impact of Natural Gas Imports on Air Pollutant Emissions in Mexico". The Energy Journal. 14 (3): 1–15. doi:10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol14-No3-1.
21. "Gasification its role in the f..／c1989".
22. Gasification: its role in the future technological and economic development of the United Kingdom. Watt Committee report. Elsevier Applied Science ; Sole distributor in the USA and Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co. 1989. ISBN 9781851663262.
23. Cantu, Francisco; Bustani, Alberto (2009). "A knowledge-based development model: the research chair strategy". Journal of Knowledge Management. 13 (1): 154–170. doi:10.1108/13673270910931233.
24. https://aieaold.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/Presidential_Perspectives/albertobustani2cgrowinginternational.pdf ^{[dead link]}
25. Lozano, F.; Huisingh, D. (2006). An Integrated, Interconnected, Multi-disciplinary Approach for Fostering Sustainable Development at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, Monterrey Campus (Technical report). UNESCO. Technical Report No.3, pp 37-47.
26. "Annual Meeting Proceedings 2002" (PDF). Instituto Centroaméricano de Administración de Empresas.
27. "Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS) | Chalmers".
28. . Archived from the original on 2012-05-04. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
29. . Archived from the original on 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
30. Tapia, Jonathan (23 November 2010). "Dan a conocer vicerrectores del Tecnológico de Monterrey". Milenio. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013.
31. "University Hosts Events in Mexico". The University of Sheffield. 21 November 2005. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
32. "Recibe distinción Alberto Bustani" (in Spanish). universia. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
33. Bird, Lindsey (21 November 2005). "University hosts events in Mexico". The University of Sheffield Media Centre.
34. (in Spanish). Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
35. Rachel, Judy (Summer 2007). "Graduate Commencement Hosts First International Speaker". Global University. Virginia Tech Newsletter. Vol. 4. No. 2. Summer 2007.
36. "Alberto Bustani to be Graduate Commencement Speaker". newswise. 4 May 2007.