USAID Training, Internships, Exchanges, and Scholarships (TIES) Program Grant

Project:
U.S.-Mexico Higher Education Partnership for Environmental Sciences and Toxicology.

Funding Agency:
Agency for International Development’s (U.S. AID) - U.S.-Mexico Training, Internships, Exchanges and Scholarships (TIES) program.

Funding Amount:
$ 300,000 for three years starting in April, 2004.

Project Abstract:
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has successfully increased trade between U.S. and Mexico. With increased economic activity, a number of concerns have come to light about environmental health and hazardous waste pollution in the Border and adjacent regions. In particular, hazardous pollutants from 3,000 border industries (maquiladoras), intensified pesticide usage, as well as from mines and metal processing have had demonstrable health impacts. A lack of trained human capital has been identified as a major stumbling block for Mexico in its effort to face the growing environmental and public health challenges. Mexico has a tremendous potential to correct this deficiency because a large population of young professionals is emerging. The focus of this project will be to provide and support environmental education to empower emerging and existing Mexican professionals to resolve the deterioration of environmental quality and public health due to toxic pollutants.The proposed project will create a higher education partnership between the University of Arizona (UA) and a consortium of eight Mexican Universities/Institutes to educate Mexican graduate students and faculty to solve problems related to hazardous pollution in Mexico. The coordinator of the Mexican Consortium of Universities will be the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV), which is a National Institute of graduate education and research. A multidisciplinary approach will be implemented, combining science, engineering, public health, and toxicology disciplines. The main objectives of this project are four-fold: 1) Build capacity among Mexican graduate students and faculty; 2) Support the development of Mexican degree programs in environmental sciences, environmental engineering, and environmental toxicology; 3) Foster research collaboration between UA and Mexican faculty; and 4) Anchor the higher education partnership into a long-term commitment as part of a Binational Center for Environmental Studies recently created in a memorandum of understanding between Mexico’s Science and Technology Ministry (CONACYT) and the UA.

The project will be carried out through four major kinds of activities: 1) fellowships for graduate studies; 2) providing short courses; 3) developing educational materials; and 4) project meetings. In the course of the project, twelve Mexican graduate students will be awarded a Fellowship to attend UA’s graduate program for two semesters. The students will select a program from one of six departments spread over five colleges related to either environmental science/engineering or public health/toxicology. The students will partake in graduate courses and research as well as a multidisciplinary seminar series. Upon returning to their home institution, the Fellows will receive one year of follow-up distance supervision from their UA advisor.

The project will provide seven short courses on environmental toxicology, risk assessment as well as remedial and preventative technologies. The courses will make 120 slots available for participants. At least one short course will be offered at each of the participating universities/institutes.

Educational materials will be developed to support Mexican faculty in their teaching efforts. For example, our on-line Spanish language textbook on Environmental Toxicology will be updated. Further, Spanish language course material for bioremediation and risk assessment will be created and posted on-line. Lastly, educational material depicting successful environmental case studies will be developed and shared.

Three project meetings will be scheduled for the UA and its eight Mexican partners. The meetings will be used to take care of project business (selection of fellows, tailoring short courses). More importantly, the meetings will be used to plan and implement the permanent Binational multidisciplinary higher educational partnership.

The most important outcome of this project will be the creation of human capital with multidisciplinary training in the areas of environmental science, engineering, and toxicology. The Mexican graduate students participating in this project will eventually join the Mexican work force in University, Government agency, and private sector positions. In these positions, they will have a role in resolving the difficult environmental challenges related to hazardous toxic substances in Mexico. We expect that some graduates from the program will assume leadership positions and push for needed environmental infrastructure. Other graduates will become entrepreneurs and start new businesses that can supply cost-effective remediation and public health services. Mexican faculty participating in the project will acquire new techniques and knowledge that can be incorporated into their classes and research. It is our goal to develop this program into an effective higher education partnership based on student exchange and research collaboration. This partnership will facilitate the training of the next generation of Mexican scientists so that they can address the escalating environmental problems expected as trade between the US and Mexico continues to increase.

Mexican Partners:
The toxicology/medical departments (and department representative) of the consortium include:

• Dr. Mariano E. Cebrián García MD, Department of Toxicology, CINVESTAV
• Dr. Patricia Ostrosky. Department of Medical Genomics and Environmental Toxicology, Institute of Biomedical Research. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM)
• Dr. Fernando Díaz-Barriga; Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP)
• Dr. Gonzalo Gerardo García Vargas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango (UJED)

The environmental science/engineering departments (and department representative) of the consortium include:

• Dr. Rogelio Vázquez González, Department of Applied Geophysics, Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)
• Dr. F. J. Cervantes, Department of Water and Environmental Sciences, Instituto Tecnologico de Sonora (ITSON)
• Dr. Sergio Revah; Department of Process Engineering, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM), Iztapalapa
• Dr. Diana Meza; Department of Geology, Universidad de Sonora (USON)

Reserachers at the University of Arizona:

• Dr. A. Jay Gandolfi (project director), Pharmacology and Toxicology
• Dr. Jim A. Field (project coordinator), Chemical and Environmental Engineering
• Dr. Joaquin Ruiz, Geosciences
• Dr. Robert C. Lantz, Cellular Biology and Anatomy
• Dr. Vas Aposhian, Molecular and Cellular Biology
• Dr. Raina Maier, Soil,Water, and Environmental Science

TIES Project Kick-off Meeting Minutes