Daniel Hurtado

• Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, School of Engineering UC

• Computational Methods in Biomedical Engineering
• Multiscale modeling of cardiac and pulmonary biomechanics
• Applied Mathematics
• Scientific computing

• Biomechanics and Quantitative Physiology

Dr. Hurtado is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering and the Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC). He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology on a Fulbright scholarship, after which he joined UC to establish the Laboratory of Biomechanics and Computational Biophysics and to co-found the Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering.

His research focuses on the creation and development of new mathematical models and computational methods to understand the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, with the goal of creating computational tools to improve the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the context of precision medicine.

Dr. Hurtado is the author of more than 30 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals, and has served as director and principal investigator on numerous research projects funded by the Chilean government (Fondecyt, Fondef, CORFO, PIA, Millennium Initiative), as well as by international funding sources such as NIH-FIRCA and the Ellinger Foundation. In 2018, he was selected by the World Economic Forum as one of the world’s most influential young scientists under the age of 40. That same year, he was also elected to the World Council of Biomechanics, becoming the first Chilean to serve on this international society. Since 2019, Dr. Hurtado has been an elected member of the “Ciencia de Frontera” program of the Chilean Academy of Sciences. In addition to his academic activities, Dr. Hurtado is an active science communicator and has served as a keynote speaker at large-scale events such as the Congreso Futuro and Nerd Nites, among others.