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Alfredo Zolezzi
Alfredo Zolezzi-Garretón (born December 12, 1958), is a Chilean industrial designer and innovator. He developed the Integrated Objectives Model, which links applied science and technological innovation with social innovation and new business models, to address social and environmental problems. This merge is what Zolezzi calls Innovation with Purpose.

Zolezzi is founder and Chief Innovation Officer of AIC Technologies LLC (AIC), a private initiative dedicated to develop innovations that link advanced science with industry in high-impact technical and economic solutions. He is also President of the Alfredo Zolezzi Foundation (AZF), a non-profit organization devoted to promote and enable scalable projects that connect advanced technology with poverty, social unrest, climate change, corporate sustainability and other pressing problems.

The AIC laboratories and AZF offices are located in Concón, Chile.

Biography
Zolezzi was born on December 12, 1958, in Santiago de Chile. His family settled in the city of Viña del Mar. He attended his elementary and secondary school at Mackay School. Later, he enrolled at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile) where he graduated as an industrial designer.

After diverse experiences in the field of technological innovation, Zolezzi creates the Integrated Objectives Model, which has allowed him to lead the development of high-impact disruptive technologies to address some of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Through sustainable and scalable solutions, he seeks to generate positive economic, social and environmental impact.

He led the development of RMS - Acoustic Hydrocarbon Stimulation, a downhole application of high-power ultrasonic fields for stimulating production of hydrocarbon deposits, increasing the efficiency of oil extraction. This technology was tested in the USA, with the participation of the U.S. Department of Energy (US-DOE-CRADA).

Currently, at AIC he leads a team of experts in physics, chemistry, plasma, electromagnetism and industrial design, working in several projects based on cutting-edge technology and new business models, to solve problems that nowadays affect the sustainability of large corporations, while addressing the needs of the most vulnerable people.

In association, one of AZF’s objectives is to install more than 1 million drinking water solutions by 2030, changing the life of more than 300 million people through safe water, as well as providing connectivity to the communities and education in good hygiene practices, to lead to better health, dignity and happiness.

Plasma Water Sanitation System
The Plasma Water Sanitation System (PWSS), developed by Zolezzi and his team, is a technology that transforms water into non-thermal plasma, eliminating viruses and bacteria. This method consists of a continuous water stream that undergoes an abrupt pressure drop, producing a liquid-and-gas biphasic stream inside a chamber, which is subjected to a specific electric field capable of ionizing particles of the treated water, generating non-thermal plasma. Then, after a few milliseconds, the stream exits the chamber as safe drinking water. The high effectiveness of this process was validated at NSF International laboratories, in the United States.

The first application of the technology is the PWSS Camp Unit, a distributed community solution specially designed for easy installation in rural and peri-urban areas, where it is not viable to install drinking water networks — due to its high cost and time.

The first pilot installation of the technology was carried out in the San José settlement, in Santiago de Chile, in 2011. Subsequently, in December 2014, a larger Pilot Installation was conducted, comprising 10 PWSS Camp Units installed in 5 locations in Chile, within the framework of a strategic public-private partnership. The project was launched by President Michelle Bachelet, with Avina Foundation and the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (Washington). Fully functional prototypes were validated and have been working for 3 years in the communities of Til Til, Curacaví and Peñaflor.

After the pilot installation, Zolezzi and his team have optimized the PWSS technology based on the experiences with Chilean communities. Today the first application of PWSS is already an industrial product. The size of the Camp Units was reduced, the energy efficiency was significantly improved and complementary water treatment stages were added to the systems, such as activated carbon and reverse osmosis (to remove dissolved solids, for example, arsenic), ensuring the production of safe drinking water.

Innovation with Purpose
In addition to develop technologies, Zolezzi is an advocate of the Innovation with Purpose principle, which leads to a constant search for disruption and ways to use the technologies differently. This approach allows proposing solutions fors addressing humanity’s most pressing challenges while creating competitive advantages and new business models. He believes that incremental innovation is no longer enough.

Zolezzi sustains that in the 21st century knowledge is a commodity. While researchers transform money into knowledge, he aims to turn knowledge into value through disruptive innovation. In his view, technology is advancing rapidly, but for the poorest people in the world life has not changed much. There are hundreds of millions of people that still live in a state of perpetual crisis.

Innovation with Purpose wants to be the answer, connecting advanced science and technology with social and environmental problems, as well as supporting the indisputable need of companies, non-profits and international organizations to increase the efficacy of humanitarian aid .

Distinctions and Recognitions
Zolezzi’s work has led him to appear in some of the most relevant media today, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes Magazine, Reuters, The Times of India, CNBC, Wired UK Magazine, France Press, BBC, World Finance, CNN-Español, and Singularity University, among others. Also, in the book “Create or Die”, by Andrés Oppenheimer, who referred to him as one of the key innovators in Latin America.

World Finance cited AIC among the top 100 most influential companies, and recognized Zolezzi’s innovation model that links social innovation with corporate sustainability as an exclusive contribution to community uplifting programing in the world. In 2013, he was invited to speak at the Wired annual event where he challenged the great personalities present to iInnovate with Purpose. The magazine said: “Alfredo Zolezzi briefly seemed to be scolding the room when he lamented the waste of great technology and brilliant minds”.

He also, has been the recipient of the U.S. Technology Pioneer Award for contributions to the debate on the relationship between technology and poverty, the Yuri Gagarin Medal, awarded by the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences for the outstanding inventions, innovations and applications of scientific ideas in human life; the Chilean Avonni Innovation Award ; the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award and Entrepreneur of the Year Award, from the Chilean Universidad del Desarrollo ; Entrepreneur of the Year Award, from the Chilean Universidad de Santiago ; the INNOVO Award, from Chile ; Innovation Recognition, from the 5th Bi-annual International Design Expo, Chile; Design Trajectory Award, from the Chilean Universidad Mayor; and the Technological Innovation in Engineering Award, from the Chilean Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez.

He served as advisor to the Business Council of the Pacific Alliance (CEAP), a trade bloc composed of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

Zolezzi has also been speaker at the 10th Iberoamerican Business Forum in Veracruz, Mexico; the 6th Babson College Latin Forum; the WIRED UK Annual Conference; the International Copper Conference in Chile; the IV International Water Congress in San Luis, Argentina; the Mexican Congress of Finance Executives; the Latin American Business Forum, in Edinburgh University.