Jorge Alberto Zamora Ibáñez
Lovingly known as “El Profe Zamora”
13 August 1941 — 24 January 2021 · aged 79
UNAM engineer who taught Mexico City's buildings, and its engineers, to ride out quakes
Mexico City, Mexico Born in Atlixco, Puebla Resting at Panteón Jardín, Mexico CityAbout Jorge
The chalk always arrived before Professor Zamora did. It was his habit: a fresh box on the desk at 6:50, a joke on the board by 7:00 and a theorem by 7:05, so that by the time sleepy second-year engineering students sat down they were already behind and happy about it.
Jorge Zamora was born in Atlixco, Puebla, in 1941, the son of a flower grower and a schoolteacher, and came to Mexico City at seventeen to study civil engineering at UNAM. He earned a master's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, returned in 1971, and spent the next thirty-nine years as a professor at UNAM's Facultad de Ingeniería and a researcher at the Instituto de Ingeniería, studying how buildings behave when the ground beneath them moves.
In September 1985 the ground moved. Professor Zamora was among the engineers who walked the stricken neighborhoods of the Centro and Tlatelolco with clipboards and flashlights, deciding which buildings could be saved and which could not, and he never forgot the families waiting on the sidewalk for his verdict. He spent the rest of his career revising building codes, training inspectors and insisting to anyone who would listen that earthquakes do not kill people; bad buildings do. He walked the same streets again after the earthquake of 2017.
Students adored and feared him in equal measure. His oral exams began, “Tell me what you would do if this were your own mother's house,” and he arrived at every thesis defense with a box of pan dulce. He played dominoes every Thursday in Coyoacán, never missed a Pumas home game at Ciudad Universitaria, and for forty-seven years called his wife Margarita “the best structural engineer in the family.”
He died on 24 January 2021, aged seventy-nine, in Mexico City after a long illness, with the Pumas' next fixture still circled on his calendar. He is survived by Margarita, his daughter Verónica, his son Arturo, four grandchildren and his brother Ignacio. Hundreds of engineers across Mexico, and every building they have kept standing, are his legacy.
“The ground will always move. Our job is to make sure the buildings know how to move with it.”
- Faith
- Catholic
- Place of birth
- Atlixco, Puebla
- Resting place
- Panteón Jardín, Mexico City
- Passed away
- 24 January 2021, Mexico City
Requiem Mass
Tuesday, 26 January 2021 at 08:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Civil Engineering Degree (Ingeniero Civil)
UNAM, Facultad de Ingeniería1958 – 1963 · Mexico City
Graduated with honors and a lifelong respect for reinforced concrete.
M.S. in Structural Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign1968 – 1971 · Urbana, Illinois
Studied the response of frames to ground motion and survived three Illinois winters.
Married Margarita Lara
1974 · Mexico City
Forty-seven years, two children and one very large set of dominoes.
Professor of Structural Engineering
UNAM, Facultad de Ingeniería1971 – 2010 · Mexico City
Taught more than four thousand students, always starting at 7:00 sharp.
Researcher
Instituto de Ingeniería, UNAM1975 – 2010 · Mexico City
Led studies on seismic behavior of mid-rise buildings.
Volunteer Structural Assessor
UNAM and Mexico City authorities1985 – 1986 · Mexico City
Inspected hundreds of damaged buildings in the weeks after the 1985 earthquake.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Jorge is survived by
- Margarita Lara de Zamora· Spouse
- Verónica Zamora Lara· Daughter
- Arturo Zamora Lara· Son
- Ignacio Zamora Ibáñez· Brother
- 4 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Jorge.
Knew Jorge? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
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Resident of Tlatelolco
In September 1985 an engineer with kind eyes inspected our building and told us we could stay. We cried. That was Professor Zamora. Thirty-five years later my children still live there. We never forgot his name, and he never forgot ours.
- SC
Classmate at the University of Illinois
Jorge arrived in Urbana in 1968 with little English and superb mathematics. We became friends over chalk dust and a shared fear of Illinois winters. I taught him baseball and he taught me to cook mole. He improved at baseball. I never mastered the mole.
- DZ
Granddaughter
Abuelo built me a Lego tower and then shook the table to see if it would hold. Mine fell. His didn't. He said the difference was foundations. I'm studying architecture now, and every time I draw a foundation, I think of him shaking the table.
- DR
Dominoes partner every Thursday
Thirty-two years at the same table in Coyoacán and he never once let me win. When he lost, which was rare, he bought the next round of coffee. There is an empty chair now. We have decided to leave it empty.
- IS
Colleague at the Instituto de Ingeniería
Jorge walked the ruins of Tlatelolco in 1985 with a clipboard, a flashlight and a conscience. He would not sign a building as safe if a family stood on the sidewalk hoping for good news and the truth was otherwise. That integrity is the standard of our profession.
- DL
Former student, now a structural engineer
In my first week in 1996, Professor Zamora had us build a bridge from spaghetti, then stood on it. It collapsed. “Now you know how the ground feels,” he said. I design earthquake-resistant hospitals today, and every model I make, I test by imagining him standing on it.
