While visiting our country at the invitation of Columbia University, Nickholas Themelis, director of the Earth Engineering Center, visited SERC Chile and met with some of its researchers to discuss his experience turning waste into energy.

On September 2, the director of SERC Chile, Rodrigo Palma, welcomed Nickholas Themelis, a professor and director of the Earth Engineering Center at Columbia University.

A delegation from the National Council for Innovation and Competitiveness—composed of its director, Gonzalo Rivas, and Jaime Álvarez—attended the meeting with the researcher, who has extensive experience in converting waste into energy. Also present were José Manuel Robles, dean of the School of Engineering at the Universidad del Desarrollo; Alex Godoy, who oversees environmental issues at the same university; Professor Svetlana Ushak, a researcher in SERC’s Line 4; and Gisele Feldman, a consultant for the Columbia Global Center in Latin America.

Feldman did not hesitate to highlight the importance of Themelis's visit for progress on energy issues in our country.

“This meeting is essential for ensuring that all the centers connect with one another and can move forward with a shared project on the topic of renewable energy and sustainable waste recycling,” he said.

Regarding Chile's prospects for progress in this area, the consulting firm stated:

“We’re on the right track. Globally, 20% of landfills are beginning to recycle. Here the figure is lower, but we have the space, the infrastructure, the professionals, and the climate to make this happen. Taking a closer look at the methodology used by Nickholas Themelis to convert waste into energy is very useful, because in Chile the focus has been on recycling waste and turning it into a new product, but producing energy is something entirely new and interesting for us.”

During lunch, the participants discussed the nature of their respective roles and explored possibilities for future collaboration.