Horacio Ferriz

Dr. Ferriz leads our Applied Geology concentration and our outreach efforts. He has more than 20 years of professional geologic, geotechnical, hydrogeologic, and environmental experience. Over this time period he has worked as geologic problem-solver in projects throughout the world involving water supply, civil works design, environmental engineering, solid waste management, geothermal exploration, and mineral exploration.

As an active professional engineering geologist, Dr. Ferriz has supervised geotechnical investigations, groundwater investigations, and geophysical surveys for projects in a variety of geologic settings. He is well versed in analytical and numerical hydrology and groundwater flow models, contaminant fate and transport models, geotechnical models, seismic analysis, slope stability, and dynamic deformation analysis. He is the Principal of HF Geologic Engineering, an international consulting firm, and the author of over 15 research papers dealing with the geology of Mexico and California, landfill engineering, stability analysis, and development and management of water resources.

A graduate of the prestigious School of Engineering of Mexico’s National University, and of Stanford University, Dr. Ferriz is a certified Geologic Engineer in Mexico and the United States, and in this capacity has provided support to several international projects. He is the Director of Water for the World, an educational project of California State University that has the stated goal of promoting capacity-building in the areas of development, management, and utilization of water resources. In this capacity, Dr. Ferriz first went to Ethiopia as part of a humanitarian effort to help fight poverty, and has since fell in love with the country and its people. He is an advisor to the Dams Review Team of this country, and tries to get there every other year to teach seminars on groundwater exploration, river engineering, and engineering geology applied to reservoir design and dam construction. Water for the World is also involved in development of new water resources for the city of Guadalajara, in western Mexico, so Dr. Ferriz and his students have an excuse to go do field work in one of the most beautiful areas of the world!