Alberto Cantu has a master's degree in Environmental Engineering with a specialty in Process Engineering by the ITESM (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey). He also earned his doctorate in Chemical Engineering with specialty in microreactors from the University College London. With more than five years of experience in the academic field (ITESM & UDEM) teaching Chemical Micro Processes Engineering & Heat Transfer Operations, Alberto has been an educational leader.

Additionally, Alberto brings more than sixteen years of professional experience, including in the food industry, CFD software consultancy, heating and thermal treatment processes, and general manufacturing industry. Within his company, Alberto had the opportunity to start two new departments in Nutec Bickley: ten years ago, he began the R&D department, constructing a lab and using advanced mathematical software for furnace design (like Computational Fluid Dynamics). Seven years ago, he led a tangential spin off to existing services to lead the business which he is currently a part of, contributing up to 15 percent of the company’s income. Now there are over 25 engineers who are able to help heat treaters globally.

A leader both internal to his company and outside of it, he has written nine official publications in a variety of journals about residence time distribution and analyzing different designs. Recently, he presented at two conferences: the Heat Treat Congress at Detroit and 5th International Conference on Thermal Process Modeling and Computer Simulation in Orlando (both organized by the ASM Heat Treating Society). He has also presented at the Forge Fair and the FIA technical conferences. Alberto is heavily involved in seminars, conferences and writing articles in journals for the dissemination of knowledge, several examples being Mathematical model-based design of an industrial box furnace and Assessment of a Mist Cooling System for Aluminum Alloys.

He has served as a member on the IHEA Board since 2020, and has been working as director of the BU Controls, Combustion and Services in the company where he oversees more than 20 people inside the company.

Nominated by: Nutec Bickley