Dr. Lopez Hurtado received his B.S. degree in Industrial Physics Engineering with highest honors from Tec de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico, 1995 and an M.S. degree in Automation with highest honors from Tec de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico, 1998. After working as a Geophysicist for Schlumberger, as a Field Service Engineer for JOT Automation, as a Project Engineer for VI Technology, and as Program Director for the Mechatronics Undergraduate Program and Tec de Monterrey, Campus Juarez, he came to Albuquerque to obtain a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, that he received in 2008 from the University of New Mexico (UNM). In 2006, Dr. Lopez Hurtado received the Outstanding Student Award from the Department of Electrical Engineering during his doctoral program. His research was in Control Systems across Networks, and he presented and published in several conferences and journals. In 2022, he completed the Institute for Educational Management Program at Harvard University.
He served as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Northern New Mexico College from 2016 to 2023. He previously served as Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology and Chair of the Department of Engineering at the same institution. At Northern, he led the implementation of newly created Bachelor programs in Engineering and the successful ABET accreditation of the Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology.
He is currently a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission and a program evaluator for ABET. He served as the director and principal investigator of multiple grants, including the U.S. Dept. STEM Title III, NIH NM-INBRE project, NSF S-STEM project, U.S. Dept. of Ed-CCRAA, Title V, PPHOA (Co-Director), PNM Smart Grid, NSF S-STEP (Co-PI). He served as a statewide New Mexico Academic Advisory Committee member to the N.M. Higher Education Department, the N.M. EPSCoR Statewide Advisory Board Member and the NM-INBRE Steering Committee member.
He has taught at Tec de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey, Campus Juarez, Campus Tampico, the University of New Mexico, and Northern New Mexico College.
