Arturo Alcaraz (March 21, 1916 – March 10, 2001)

•is a Filipino volcanologist known for his work on geothermal energy

• Father of Geothermal Energy Development

• Bachelor's degree in Marine Engineering from the Mapua Institute of Technology in 1937
• finished his Master of Science in Geology at the University of Wisconsin in 1941

• In 1955, Alcaraz received a Guggenheim Fellowship award and took two semesters of study at
the University of California at Berkeley from which he received a Certificate in Volcanology.

• A 1982 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for government service.

Career
•In May 1943, he became Chief Geophysicist of the Philippine Weather Bureau.

• In 1947, he had his first close-range experience of volcanic eruption when Mayon Volcano in
the Bicol region of southern Luzon erupted.

•In 1951, the Commission on Volcanology (ComVol) was officially created under the
National Research Council and appointed Alcaraz as Chief Volcanologist which he held until 1974.

• a leading member of a team in The Kahimyang Project that used steam from the heat of a
volcano to produce electric power in 1967.

• In 1974, as Chief of the Geothermal Division of the National Power Corporation, Alcaraz led in
achieving the production of 550 megawatts of steam power at Tiwi and at Mac-Ban, making the
Philippines the largest producer of geothermal electric energy from wet steam in the world.

•In the 1980s, the Philippines even attained the second highest geothermal generating capacity
in the world

• Even in retirement in 1981, ALCARAZ continued as a consultant to the Philippine National Oil
Company