A 104-year-old Colombian completed his thesis and solved …

Colombian aged 104 years he made headlines after completing a doctoral thesis he had started three decades earlier. Lucio Chiquito Caicedo, born in Colombia in 1916, is an engineer who took advantage of the confinement caused by the pandemic to complete the doctoral thesis, which he must defend at the University of Manchester.

Chiquito was 27 when, in 1943, he won a scholarship to study at the University of Manchester. There he traveled, in the middle of World War II, and graduated as a hydraulic engineer in 1947. However, 43 years passed before he began working on his thesis. “My thesis is to determine the maximum amount of water that can be economically extracted from a river for energy or for anything else,” explained the century-old engineer, who lives in Medellín.

It is as important a point as doing the thesis with more than a hundred years of life. Chiquito has found a mathematical formula by which he can calculate the optimal flow a river needs to generate electricity. It is an enigma that has not been solved since the beginning of the Christian era.

“Time comes and goes, and wasted time will never return,” says the man whose recipe for longevity is to bathe in cold water, eat plenty of fruit, read and study as much as possible. Known in Colombia as a pioneering gender equality entrepreneur, Chiquito is planning for the future. Not only does he plan to defend his thesis: he also wants to deepen the grammar of German, a language he learned as a child.

In dialogue with Colombian, gave two tips. “First, take advantage of the time, because the time that is past does not return. If before it was difficult, now it is easier with technology and opportunities, then my best wishes for those who want to take the difficult path of study. The second is the power to inspire and leave a legacy for new generations. Fight for your dreams because anything is possible regardless of age. “