He was born in Mexico City in 1950 and is a graduate of the Facultad de Ingeniería [Faculty of Engineering] of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) [National Autonomous University of Mexico], where he earned with a Civil Engineering degree as well as the Master’s and Doctor of Engineering degrees. He is a researcher at the Instituto de Ingeniería [Institute of Engineering] of the UNAM and he belongs to the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI) [National Researcher System]. He is a member of the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias [Mexican Academy of Sciences], the Unión Geofísica Mexicana [Mexican Geophysical Union], the American Geophysical Union, the Seismological Society of America and the Real Academia de Ingeniería de España [Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain]. He is currently a professor in the Ciencias de la Tierra [Earth Sciences] graduate program of the UNAM.

His research focuses mainly on the propagation of seismic waves, particularly on the manner in which local topography and geological conditions affect the characteristics of earth quakes, their experimental verification and mathematical modeling. Since 1990 he has been working on an improved version of the integral equations he has applied to study topographic and alluvial deposits models subjected to seismic excitement.

He is a past president of the Sociedad Mexicana de Ingeniería Sísmica [Mexican Society of Earthquake Engineering] and president of the Academia de Ingeniería [Academy of Engineering]. He has also been Coordinador de Investigación y Planeación en el Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo [Coordinator of Research and Planning at the Mexican Petroleum Institute]. He was coordinador de Mecánica Aplicada y de Ingeniería Sismológica [coordinator of Applied Mechanics and Earthquake Engineering] and later, director of the Instituto de Ingeniería [Engineering Institute] of the UNAM. He belongs to the Consejo Consultivo de Ciencias de la Presidencia de la República (CCC) [Sciences Consulting Council, Presidency of Mexico].

He received the Premio “Miguel A. Urquijo” del Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de México ["Miguel A. Urquijo” prize from the College of Civil Engineers of Mexico] and the Premio "Manuel Noriega Morales" awarded by the Organization of American States (OAS). In 1994 the Mexican government awarded him the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes [National Award for Science and Arts].

He has also received the Premio Universidad Nacional en el Área de Innovación Tecnológica y Diseño Industrial [National University Prize in the Area of Technological Innovation and Industrial Design], the Premio Nacional a la Investigación “Nabor Carrillo Flores” [“Nabor Carrillo Flores” National Research Prize], the Trifunac Award granted by the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology, the Kapitza Medal of Honor, granted by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, United States Section. (The medal is the highest award given by the academy for a major scientific discovery).

He has published over 180 articles including 94 in international refereed journals. His work has received over 800 citations in the literature. He has tutored 43 theses (21 BS, 13 MS and 9 PhD degrees).