Universidad Industrial de Santander

UIS is one of the top research universities in Colombia, but getting familiarized and connected to some more international network initiatives was the highlight of this visit.

Thanks to Dr. Yeinzon Rodriguez, a High-Energy physicist focused primarily on Inflation-theory, I was introduced to the research and funding processes at UIS. Again much of the funding comes through ColCiencias, but as at the Universidad de Antioqua in Medellin, there were a lot of funding options directly through grants at UIS as well. Dr. Rodriguez is even able to support a post-doc from Italy, Dr. Fabio Briscese (this is the first active post-doc in physics that I've encountered anywhere so far in Latin America).

Meeting Dr. Luis Nunez, a Cuban-born, Venezuela-educated physicist with a very global bent, was inspiring. Dr. Nunez is the Academic Director of the RedClara network. RedClara is the principal organizer of Latin American NREN's (National Research and Education Networks), and among many initiatives that they help foster, they are actively implementing wide-band Internet connections in Universities throughout Latin America (through “academic” wires, as opposed to "commercial").
As part of his position with RedClara, Dr. Nunez travels around Latin America, forming lasting collaborations between researchers in all types of research fields, and connecting them through RedClara. Dr. Nunez also works with other more specialized collaborative platforms, such as HELEN (High Energy LatinAmerican-European Network), VAMDC (Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Center) and EELA ( E-Infrastructure shared between Europe and Latin America).


I learned a lot from our talk; from infrastructure and logistics, to limitations in technical resources. Dr. Nunez stressed the profound potential and desire to change and improve in the region. 


He was also in turn very interested in my ideas and objectives for forming a virtual collaborative research interface, and has offered to set me up with other active members of RedClara and related projects throughout Latin America. These contacts are essential for the success of this project.