Juan Sobrino is a civil engineer, known internationally for designing more than 400 bridges, introduction of advanced materials in bridges and innovative bridge designs. He is the founder of Pedelta, an international structural engineering firm. Sobrino was an adjunct professor at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

from 2010 to 2012, and a part-time associate professor at

Polytechnic University of Catalonia The Technical University of Catalonia ( ca, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, , es, link=no, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest engineering university in Catalonia, Spai ...

Education

Dr. Sobrino studied Civil Engineering at

Technical University of Catalonia The Technical University of Catalonia ( ca, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, , es, link=no, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest engineering university in Catalonia, Spai ...

(UPC), and earned Master of Science in 1990. He went on to pursue a PhD in Civil Engineering. He has been actively involved in sharing his industry experience and research experience with students and young engineers as he is frequently invited as a guest speaker in Civil Engineering departments of universities including Princeton and the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Career

Dr. Sobrino founded Pedelta immediately after earning his PhD in 1994. Since then, he has been involved in design of new bridges, as well as assessment and rehabilitation of existing bridges in USA, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Awards

* 2003 IABSE (International Association for Bridge & Structural Engineering) award * 2005 GFRP Lleida Footbridge Awarded with Footbridge Award. Venice, Italy. * 2012 Innovation award Spain, Spanish Board of Civil Engineers, Valencia, Spain. * 2012 The Triplets, La Paz, Bolivia awarded with Eugene C.Figg Jr. medal, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. * 2015 Medal of Professional Merit, Spanish Board of Civil Engineers, Madrid, Spain.

Innovations

Amongst his various innovative bridge designs, his application of use of advance materials has reached international recognition, with completed bridge examples including the first stainless steel vehicular bridge in Menorca, the stainless steel arch pedestrian bridge in Sant Fruitos, the first hybrid stainless steel and GFRP pedestrian bridges of Zumaia and Vilafant, as well as the Abetxuko Bridge, a steel girder/organic form bridge.

Notable projects

Image:STBoiBridge.jpg,

Sant Boi Bridge The Sant Boi Bridge is the first steel structure in the high-speed railway joining the city of Madrid and Barcelona. The bridge is very close to the international airport of Barcelona. This high-speed railway viaduct is in concept similar to L ...

, Sant Boi, Spain (2005). Image:LlinarsBridge.jpg,

High Speed Railway Bridge over AP7, Llinars del Valles The Llinars Bridge this bridge is the first steel structure in the high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock ...

(2007). File:AbetxukoBridge.jpg, Abetxuko Bridge, Vitoria, Spain(2005). File:Lleida GFRP Pedestrian bridge.jpg , GFRP Lleida footbridge, Lleida, Spain(2001). File:CalaGaldanaBridge.JPG, Cala Galdana Bridge (First Stainless Steel Vehicular bridge), Menorca, Spain(2004). File:Viaducto-Envigado.jpg,

Envigado bridge The Los Fundadores Bridge ( Spanish: Intercambio Vial Los Fundadores), also known as the Peldar Bridge because of its location, is a concrete cable-stayed bridge in Envigado, Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, ...

, Envigado, Colombia (2004). File:Vilafant_Bridge.JPG,

Vilafant Bridge The High Speed Railway line connecting Barcelona and the French border crosses the Municipality of Vilafant 19 ft (6 m) below the ground level. To cross the sunken railroad, two pedestrian bridges were constructed. The structure, with one s ...

, Vilafant, Spain (2011). File:Sant Fruitós 1.JPG, Sant Fruitós, Spain (2009)

References