Discovery Park's chief scientist addresses congressional committee in Peru
June 18, 2018
Discovery Park's tagline, "Where disciplines converge to solve global challenges," gains real-world application through international partnerships. Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, Discovery Park's chief scientist and executive director, spoke Tuesday (June 12) to members of Peru's Congress as part of one such partnership -- presenting the mission of Discovery Park and an overview of the Arequipa NEXUS Institute for food, energy, water and the environment.
The institute functions under the Universidad Nacional de San Agustin (UNSA)-PURDUE partnership, as Díaz de la Rubia told the Commission [congressional committee] of Science, Technology and Innovation in Lima, Peru's capital.
“In Discovery Park we tackle and solve global challenges and create a social impact through research and education. It is with this strategic alliance with UNSA that research being done at Purdue can be applied to solve challenges in the region of Arequipa, challenges in the areas of water, soils, environment and social sciences. Our goal is to make Arequipa the reference in Latin America for these types of research,” Díaz de la Rubia said. “We were fortunate to meet Dr. Rohel Sanchez and Dr. Barreda through our colleagues at Core Foundation about a year ago, from that moment a series of discussions started about the challenges in the region of Arequipa.” Arequipa, the nation's second-largest city, is in far southern Peru.
Rohel Sánchez, rector of UNSA, stressed the importance for the University to be an agent of change.
“We need a strategic alliance between academia, government, and the private sector,” Sanchez said.
According to the commission president [chairman], Congressman César Antonio Segura Izquierdo, the commission is bringing together different areas of the state, universities, institutes, regional and local governments.
“Legislation is very important, especially now that we have to deal with the challenge of cybersecurity,” Segura said. “We need to develop at the same pace that the world is becoming more digital. We need to strengthen our infrastructure.”
Congressman Israel Lazo expressed his satisfaction at seeing the attention to science and technology.
"I congratulate you for supporting a university in Peru since our country is a natural laboratory and has different microclimates. Mining degrades our lands and pollutes our rivers, harming thousands of families who now suffer from anemia and malnutrition in the jungle,” Lazo said. “This is going to be an example for the rest of Peru and wish for your institution to have this relationship with other national universities.”
Purdue officially started the cooperative technical alliance program with UNSA in February 2018. Over 100 faculty between Purdue and UNSA will be participating in a total of 19 projects that will be executed by December 2020 -- a first phase of 10 projects started in January 2018 and the nine others will start in January 2019. Discovery Park plans to expand its partnership and social impact through research in Peru to other regions of the country.
Links
Discovery Park: https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/
UNSA-PURDUE partnership: https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/arequipa-nexus/en/index.php
National University of San Agustin de Arequipa http://www.unsa.edu.pe/#
About Discovery Park
Discovery Park is a place where Purdue researchers move beyond traditional boundaries, collaborating across disciplines and with policymakers and business leaders to create solutions for a better world. Grand challenges of global health, global conflict and security, and those that lie at the nexus of sustainable energy, world food supply, water and the environment are the focus of researchers in Discovery Park. The translation of discovery to impact is integrated into the fabric of Discovery Park through entrepreneurship programs and partnerships.
Writer: Sarah Anderson, andersons@purdue.edu, 765-494-1386
Source: Cliff Wojtalewicz, cliffw@purdue.edu, 765-496-3961
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