Marcelo Mena Carrasco
Vice Minister of Environment, Chile
Using chemical weather forecasting models for real policy outcomes

Marcelo Mena Carrasco, Vice Minister of the Environment of Chile as of March 11, 2014, is a scientist with the heart of a social activist. His research in the field of civil and environmental engineering has helped transform air quality in his home country of Chile. After graduating with honors in biochemical engineering from Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso in Valpairaso, Chile, Mena-Carrasco earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Iowa in the US, focusing on the relationships among airborne pollutants, weather, and climate. His cutting-edge activity in the area of chemical weather forecasting has greatly improved air-quality forecasts in Chile, and he has received the NASA Group Achievement Award, the Environmental Protection Agency’s P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) Sustainable Design Competition Honor Mention, and an MIT Molina Fellowship.