University of North Texas

By Nancy Kolsti, News Promotions

When doctoral student Adriana D’Alba needed some financial assistance to conduct research for her dissertation, she didn’t have to search very far.

D’Alba’s major professor, Greg Jones, received an award from a research fund established for joint projects between faculty members and graduate students at UNT and at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, in Toluca, near Mexico City. The award allowed D’Alba, who received her undergraduate degree from UAEM more than 10 years before, to return and test a 3D virtual environment that she created for the Mexican university's museum. 

“I could not have done this research without the assistance of UAEM,” said D’Alba, who received her doctoral degree in educational computing in May and is now at Grambling University. 

Created in 2010, the UAEM-UNT Research Seed Funding Program is one of several UAEM-UNT connections. Representatives from both universities will celebrate their 10-year partnership with a luncheon Oct. 12 and an opening reception that evening at UNT on the Square for an art exhibit showcasing works from three Mexican artists.

Works by printmaker Agapito Rincon Pina, plastics artist Leopoldo Flores, and painter/sculptor Armando Pineda will be on display at UNT on the Square through Nov. 7. All of the works are part of the permanent collection at the UAEM museum. The exhibition is free, and an opening reception will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Oct. 12.

Witold Brostow, Regents Professor of materials science and engineering, was the first UNT faculty member to establish a connection to UAEM when he began collaborating on research with chemistry faculty member Gonzalo Martinez Barrera. Barrera had met Brostow when he worked in Brostow’s Laboratory of Advanced Polymers and Optimized Materials.

With the help of Provost Warren Burggren, then dean of the College of Arts of Sciences, a formal agreement allowing the two universities to work together on research was signed in July 2002.

Burggren’s involvement in the UNT-UAEM connection, which includes conducting biological sciences research with UAEM faculty members as well as representing UNT as an administrator, contributed to his recently being named Rector Honoris Causa, or Honorary President, by UAEM officials, above. UAEM has given out 14 other such awards in its 128-year history, and Burggren is the first recipient from outside of Mexico.   

Supplementary agreements between UNT and UAEM created the Research Seed Funding Program in 2010. The fund has provided 23 awards to faculty members from seven of UNT’s 10 schools and colleges.

Bruce Hunter, acting director of UNT’s Institute of Applied Science, has visited UAEM five times since 2004 as part of a team evaluating hydrologic environmental services at one of Mexico’s national parks. Hunter also taught courses in Toluca about geographic information systems.

“When our students go to Mexico and see the people in their ordinary lives, their eyes are opened,” Hunter said. “We can learn a lot from Mexico about the way that environmental resources are used. We take water for granted in the U.S., but in Mexico, water is often used more wisely.”

Stacey Antilla, a doctoral student in environmental science, visited UAEM twice this year to research Mexico’s environmental services for her dissertation.

“I had spent time at a resort in Cancun, but going to the ‘real’ Mexico was a life changing experience for me. It broadened the coursework that I’ve been doing here at UNT,” she said.

Other initiatives that have resulted from the UNT-UAEM partnership are:

• The opening of an academic liaison office for UAEM at UNT in 2005 to promote the exchange of students and scholars between the two universities and provide information on academic programs, contacts and other assistance.   
• A scholarship program that provides full tuition to UAEM graduates who enter doctoral degree programs at UNT.
• An exchange students program that allows UNT and UAEM undergraduates and graduate students to study at each other’s universities for one or two semesters.
• A summer institute hosted by UNT’s Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication that provides UAEM students and faculty with two weeks of intense English language instruction and activities to introduce them to American culture. 

Above, Provost Warren Burggren, center right, was named Rector Honoris Causa, or Honorary President, by UAEM officials in 2012.