On Wednesday March 25, the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, University of Chile inaugurated the new auditorium of the Beauchef 851 building. It was dedicated to Dean Enrique D’Etigny Lyon (1926-2014), who led the academic unit between 1963 and 1971.
Family, friends and collaborators of D’Etigny, as well as authorities of the faculty joined in the inauguration event that began with Dean Patricio Aceituno’s speech. The central axis of the ceremony consisted of testimonials by former collaborators of the honoree: the researcher from the Center for Mathematical Modeling Rafael Correa, the Foreign Affairs minister and former researcher at the Academia de Humanismo Cristiano Heraldo Muñoz, former senator and first director of Industrial Engineering Department Sergio Bitar, the first director of the Department of Geology Luis Aguirre and former directors of the School of Engineering Joaquín Cordua and Carlos Díaz. They talked about aspects of Dean D’Etigny’s personality – he was man of a high moral character, with vision, a tremendous sense of humor, a great human being with profound intelligence.
“He was an austere man, with a terrifying self-confidence, hard to impress and very difficult to impress him” said Professor Correa, who worked with the engineer when D’Etigny was president of Conicyt after the return of the democracy in the 90s.
The speakers acknowledged the significant contributions made by Enrique D’Etigny as the faculty’s Dean, a position he assumed when he was just 37 years old, and in which he achieved various milestones : the foundation of the departments of Geology, Industrial Engineering and Chemistry; the Doctorate in Geology; the Research and Electric Trials Institute, which served as the basis for the creation of the Department of Electrical Engineering, and the creation of the first program for the development of the computing sciences in a Chilean university, among other accomplishments.
Particularly, Correa stressed the commitment of D’Etigny to the defense of human rights during the dictatorship and his contribution to the consolidation of the Department of Mathematical Engineering, which was created two years before he assumed the Deanship. He also remembered how D’Etigny restructured the FCFM, increasing the recruitment of full-time professors, the incentives for faculty who would hold postgraduate studies and the creation of a committee for academic evaluation: “All these measures permeated the university later”.
On the work performed at Conicyt, Correa praised the former Dean’s vocation to create a public institution that would effectively serve Chilean scientific research, free from all kind of pressures with lasting impact. In that way, he emphasized the ethical spirit of the honoree and the impetus given to initiatives that today exist as the Centers of Excellence (such as CMM, founded in 2000), the national scholarship program for PhD and Master Programs and agreements for international cooperation.
“I consider it a very wise decision to give to the Western Beauchef St Auditorium the name of this engineer who made a great contribution to the development of science in Chile,” Correa said.
More photos in our flickr gallery:
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More information on Enrique D’Etigny’s life:
La Universidad de Chile despide con cariño al ex decano Enrique D’Erigny Lyon[/box]
