Alberto Florentino Aguilera-Alvarado (Foy) (2 de junio de 1955-28 de abril de 2021) The Committed and Passionate University Professor, the Great Friend and the Great Human Being

Abstract

On March 12, I received an urgent email from two students whose academic tutor I was, in which they asked me to authorize their withdrawal from the subject of reactor engineering, by virtue of the fact that their professor had said goodbye to them. "on line" because he requested a license by virtue of requiring medical attention, but promising to return, even though, as those of us who knew him intuited, having made that decision was because he was at the limit of his strength. The students therefore required to register the subject with a substitute teacher. I was immediately alarmed and asked them if their professor was Dr. Alberto Aguilera, to which they answered in the affirmative. Given the great closeness at work and above all the great friendship that has united us, with all the confidence, I contacted him by telephone and he confided in me about a serious health problem that had worsened in recent months and that from the results of some delicate studies to which he had to submit, he had decided to apply for a license to the courses he taught in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in chemical engineering. I received a strong impact, because in that talk he quickly recalled with nostalgia, but firmly, many experiences that we had the opportunity to share and, from that moment, perhaps he began to be aware that his time was shortening. His wife, Mrs. Dr. Irene, shared with me that “stoically facing his fate, when the oncologist explained that nothing could or should be done and asked him if he understood what it meant, Foy replied 'Doctor, I know about kinetics and I know how phase is the kinetics of my life'…”