MEXICO – The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) announced the research that will receive funding as part of a program aimed at strengthening relationships between researchers on both sides of the border and ultimately fostering scholarly work that benefits the Paso del Norte region.
Now in its second year, the U.S.-Mexico Collaborative Fellowship is the product of officials from UTEP and several universities in the Mexican state of Chihuahua who were looking for new ways to collaborate and create additional educational opportunities for students.
The scholarship program was a resounding success in its first year, said Arturo Barrio, UTEP’s associate vice president for international relations. Faculty and students from UTEP and multiple colleges and universities in Mexico had the opportunity to work directly on critical topics such as 3D printing and advanced manufacturing, drought control and binational education programs.
“We saw very successful results and received great feedback from our community,” said Barrio. “Our goal with this ‘seed’ fund, is to find these initiatives with potential, allow them to expand on their own merits and discover new funding opportunities to continue their research.”
Pecan cultivation and drought stressors on the U.S.-Mexico border, led by Hugo Gutierrez-Jurado, Ph.D., assistant professor in UTEP’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences, was one of the first projects funded by the grant last year. The project is scheduled to receive additional funding from the National Science Foundation next September.
This year’s awardees will collectively receive $120,000 from UTEP’s research enterprise. An interdisciplinary committee including researchers from the university and Mexican partner institutions selected the projects using a broad set of criteria to identify proposals with the greatest potential impact and benefit to students.
The newly funded projects are:
Analysis of Breast Cancer in Hispanic Women, led by Giulio Francia, associate professor, Department of Biological Sciences (UTEP), and collaborating with Eugenia Martinez, anatomopathologist and Ph.D. in Instruction, Institute of Biomedical Sciences (UACJ).
Another project is the Regional Field Trips to Study Mineral, Petroleum, Ore, and Rock Deposits, a study led by James B. Chapman, assistant professor of the Department of Earth Sciences, Environment and Resources (UTEP), with the collaboration of Aldo Izaguirre Pompa, PhD in Earth Sciences, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ).
Also, Monitoring and knowledge of native reptiles was selected. A study headed by Vicente Mata-Silva, assistant professor of the Department of Biological Sciences (UTEP), and in which Ana Gatica Colima, research professor of the Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences (UACJ) participates.
The study related to the diagnosis of endometriosis was also selected. A project of Elisa Robles-Escajeda, research assistant professor of the Department of Biological Sciences (UTEP) and Dr. Alejandro Martínez Martínez, professor of the Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences (UACJ). Also participating in this analysis are Victor Carrasco (Obstetrician/Gynecologist), Dr. Daniel Dickens (Pathologist), Flor Alday Montañez, PhD student (UACJ), Gloria Erika Mejia Carmona, postdoctoral intern (UACJ) and Marwa Belhaj, undergraduate student (UTEP).
Carbon dioxide capture from the atmosphere using nanomaterials, a study by Hamidreza Sharifan, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (UTEP) was also selected. Oskar Alejandro Palacios, PhD in Natural Resources Management and Preservation, and Laila Nayzzel Muñoz, PhD in Environmental Science and Technology, Faculty of Chemical Sciences (UACH) are collaborating in this project.
Finally, a project related to the development of microelectronics manpower was also chosen, by researcher David Zubia, professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (UTEP), and in which José Mireles Jr., Ph.D., professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Abimael Jiménez, ScD., professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, (UACJ) collaborate.
This project will simultaneously teach a hybrid course on semiconductor fundamentals to students from UTEP and seven Mexican universities located in the states of Chihuahua and Morelos. The universities are members of a newly formed network of laboratories that carries out the project.
