Patricio Winckler

Patricio Winckler is a member of the Ocean Engineering Group at Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile. He earned a Civil Engineering degree from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Chile (2002), a MSc. in Environmental Technology from University of Wolverhampton, England (2002), a Master in Port and Coastal Engineering at CEDEX, Spain (2004) and a PhD. in Civil Engineering with specialization in environmental fluid mechanics, at Cornell University, United States (2015). He has been a research fellow at the National University of Singapore (2016), at the Earthquake Research Institute at The University of Tokyo (2017-8) and visiting professor at various Latin-American universities. He has been awarded prestigious international scholarships, such as Fulbright (US), The Matsumae Foundation (Japan), Alpha Grant (EU) and Beca Chile and has published various scientific papers and books.

His research interests cover a wide range of ocean, coastal, port and environmental engineering problems, with focus on coastal hazards and climate-driven impacts in the nearshore. In the onset of his career, he developed theoretical work in dissimilar problems such as the mixing of contaminants in the surf zone and propagation of long waves on fjords, after which he moved to applied research. In the last decade, he has explored the science of earthquakes and tsunamis in subduction zones by combining numerical modelling, field surveys, eyewitness’ interviews and historical records. He has also worked on climate-driven impacts in tectonically active margins, by assessing the impacts of coastal hazards -sea level rise, coastal storms, meteotsunamis and storm surge- in natural and human systems such as beaches, wetlands, ports and coastal cities. He is currently working on the development of resilient coastal structures by means of numerical and physical modelling.

 In international matters, he represented Chile before the United Nations’ General Assembly in an informal consultation process on the impacts of sea level rise, at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2021). He also joined the Chilean delegation in COP25, headed by the Ministry of Science (2019) and, at the request of the Ministry of the Environment, he is currently the local representative in the Project Management of risks linked to climate change on the coasts of America, funded by the Spanish Government (2019-2022). Today he shares his academic work with art (www.patowinckler.cl)