John Fernando Zapata Mesa  has a B.Sc. in theoretical physics, an M.Sc. in elementary particle physics, and a Ph.D. in materials engineering. He completed his postdoctoral stay in quantum mechanics, addressing the problem of quantum confinement in semiconductor heterostructures. He obtained all degrees at the University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia. He has been working at the University of Envigado for 17 years and is a full professor attached to the Faculty of Engineering.

His most recent research deals with the characterization of cementitious materials, the study of confinement in semiconductor heterostructures, and the modeling and simulation of physical phenomena at the macro and microstructure level and at the quantum level. Now he focuses on the study of the properties of materials from the study of their symmetries in the case of crystalline materials and methods of quantification of the amorphous phase in non-crystalline materials. For this purpose, he uses artificial intelligence tools, and tools such as the modified Rietveld method, FTIR modeling and Raman spectroscopy complemented with thermal analysis methods such as DSC and TGA techniques.