Dignitaries from Mexico’s Autonomous University of Hidalgo State came to UC Irvine recently to meet with campus leadership and representatives from several schools and units. The purpose of the visit, organized by UC Irvine’s Mexico Graduate Research & Education Program, was to identify areas of common academic and research interest between the two institutions.

One of the leading universities in Latin America, the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo in Central Mexico serves about 65,000 students with 66 graduate degree programs and 67 undergraduate programs. The formerly state-controlled school attained its autonomous status in 1961.

Dr. Octavio Carrillo Acosta, president of UAEH, and Jose Luis Sosa, UAEH director of international affairs, began their visit on Oct. 9 with a meeting with Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Hal Stern. Also in attendance were Derek Dunn-Rankin, MGREP academic director and professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Luisa Kregel, MGREP executive director. Later that morning, the group met with Paul Merage School of Business Dean Ian Williamson.

Following an early-afternoon conference in Aldrich Hall with Jaymi Lee Smith, interim vice provost and dean of the Graduate Division, the group went to Rowland Hall for a conversation with School of Physical Sciences Dean James Bullock and Mu-Chu Chen, associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion.

The next day Castillo Acosta toured the Science Library and met with John Renaud, associate university librarian for research resources and director for collection strategies and scholarly communication, and Rikke Ogawa, assistant university librarian for public services. The dignitaries then attended a lunch meeting with Valierie Amador, associate vice provost of the Graduate Division, joined by engineering faculty and community leaders.

The entourage made its way to Engineering Hall mid-afternoon to conference with Magnus Egerstedt, the Stacey Nicholas Dean of Engineering. Also in attendance were Andrei Shkel, associate dean for research; Aparna Chandramowlishwaran, acting associate dean of graduate studies and associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science; Lee Swindlehurst, Nicolaos G. and Sue Curtis Alexopoulos Presidential Chair of electrical engineering and computer science; Michell Digman, chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering; and Lily Wu, School of Engineering international programs director.

“We in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering have long held the conviction that we need a strategic partnership with our close neighbors in Mexico,” said Dean Egerstedt. “Such cooperation would help provide opportunities to students on both sides of the border and enhance research collaboration between our institutions. It makes sense for us as a forward-looking school of engineering.”

Following a meeting in which Egerstedt presented Castillo Acosta with a unique memento, a UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering soccer scarf bearing the words “engineering united,” the two counterparts signed a memorandum of understanding document to promise future cooperation.

The UAEH president was then treated to an unannounced visit to a laboratory in the subbasement of Rowland Hall where professor of chemistry F. Sherwood Rowland and postdoctoral scholar, Mexico-born Mario Molina, conducted research in the 1970s into the harmful effects of chlorofluorocarbons on Earth’s ozone layer, work that won the two a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995.

“The opportunity to see this laboratory where my countryman Mario Molina did his important work was very impressive and interesting,” said Castillo Acosta.

“The visit of Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo president Dr. Octavio Carrillo Acosta to UC Irvine was a huge success thanks to the participation of many people across our campus,” said Kregel. “This was the first time we were able to unite high-level administrators, deans, Hispanic and non-Hispanic faculty and students in a spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration with this important Mexican institution, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.”