Sergio Saldaña Zorrilla

Advisor

Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems Research Group

Advancing Systems Analysis Program

Advisor

Communications and External Relations Department

Biography

Sergio Saldaña holds a PhD in Economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria.

From 2018 to 2024, he served as Vice Minister of Energy for the Government of Mexico. He also served as a member of the board of directors of the National Development Bank of Mexico and previously served as Chief Economist for the left-wing faction of the Senate in Mexico.

In addition to those, he also held the roles of Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations' Regional Commission for Latin American and Caribbean Countries (UN-ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile; Evaluator of UNDP Energy and Environment Projects in several countries; and Senior Director of a UNEP-World Bank GEF project. He was also a research fellow at IIASA in Laxenburg, Austria, for five years, holding the Colosio fellowship in his first year.

During his time in academia, Saldaña was a professor of economic growth theories at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and a professor of environmental economics at the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UNAM in climate change economics.

Saldaña has supervised nine master's and doctoral theses, served as a peer reviewer for postgraduate programs, secured research funding and reviewed multiple articles for various international journals. He is the author of five books and has co-authored four others, as well as publishing numerous scientific articles on energy policy, disaster risk management, and climate change in international journals. He has also written several essays on political philosophy and numerous journalistic articles.

Last update: 09 JUL 2025

Publications

Saldaña-Zorrilla, S.O. (2015). Natural Disasters, Foreign Trade and Agriculture in Mexico.
Public Policy for Reducing Economic Vulnerability. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-319-17359-7 10.1007/978-3-319-17359-7.

Saldaña-Zorrilla, S.O. (2015). Natural hazards and economic stressors. In: Natural Disasters, Foreign Trade and Agriculture in Mexico. pp. 25-48 Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-319-17359-7 10.1007/978-3-319-17359-7_3.

Saldaña-Zorrilla, S. O. (2015). Spatial model of incomes and migration. In: Natural Disasters, Foreign Trade and Agriculture in Mexico. pp. 69-88 Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-319-17359-7 10.1007/978-3-319-17359-7_5.

Saldaña-Zorrilla, S.O. (2015). Stakeholders’ views in reducing vulnerability and resilience building. In: Natural Disasters, Foreign Trade and Agriculture in Mexico. pp. 89-112 Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-319-17359-7 10.1007/978-3-319-17359-7_6.

Saldaña-Zorrilla, S.O. (2015). A conceptual framework of economic vulnerability. In: Natural Disasters, Foreign Trade and Agriculture in Mexico. pp. 5-24 Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-319-17359-7 10.1007/978-3-319-17359-7_2.