Alberto Bezama

Biography

Alberto Bezama has over 15 years of experience in contaminated site management, waste management, and cleaner production, as well as more than 10 years in the field of sustainability assessment. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Concepción (Chile) and earned his PhD at the Institute for Waste Management and Technology at the University of Leoben (Austria).

From 2006 to 2010, he worked at the Environmental Sciences Center EULA-Chile at the University of Concepción, where he was appointed as a tenured Assistant Professor in Environmental Engineering. During his time in Chile, he established and led several research groups at the EULA Center, focusing on solid waste management, risk assessment and management of contaminated sites, and sustainability assessment, providing scientific and technical support to both industry and public institutions.

From 2012 until 2025, he was a researcher at the Department of Bioenergy at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany, where he led the Working Group on Systems Analysis of the Bioeconomy starting in 2015. That same year, he was also appointed Deputy Head of the Department of Bioenergy. His research focused on developing and applying life cycle-based tools to evaluate the regional impacts of implementing bio-based technologies, within the broader context of bioeconomy and circular economy strategies.

In August 2022, he was appointed W2-Professor for Bioeconomy Systems Analysis at the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Rostock, Germany, through a joint appointment with UFZ.

Since May 2025, he holds the position of Full Professor and Associate Dean (Sustainability) at the Schulich School of Engineering, where he leads the Sustainable Systems Engineering program.