During the last two years, researchers from the Department of Mathematical Sciences and SAMBa have been growing collaborative activities with academic institutions in Mexico, particularly Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM) and Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas (CIMAT).

A University of Bath delegation to Mexico in April 2015 led to an institutional agreement between Bath and UNAM allowing reciprocal exchanges of Master’s students in Mathematical Sciences.

Working series across three institutions

At a research level, the visit generated the hugely successful BUC (Bath-UNAM-CIMAT) series which has now delivered five workshops across the three institutions. Topics included probability, statistics and uncertainty quantification.

A sixth event in the area of applied analysis is scheduled in April and May and is being led by Kirill Cherednichenko from Bath.

These deep and growing links are now delivering tangible benefits to researchers in Bath and Mexico with funding awarded for fellowships and scholarships, and research links growing ever stronger.

Welcoming students and scholars from Mexico

The Department has already successfully attracted two PhD students from Mexico, who were awarded funding from CONACYT. Uziel Gonzalez and Román Aguirre are pursuing their studies through SAMBa.

Uziel, who is currently in his first year of the programme said: “I am really enjoying SAMBa and I have found an enthusiastic environment to study at the University of Bath. The people are very welcoming and the city is beautiful. I am looking forward to finding my research project, working with the excellent professors in the Department of Mathematical Sciences.”

Two Newton fellowships have been awarded to Mexican scholars from CIMAT to take up research positions in the Department of Mathematical Sciences.

  • Juan Carlos Pardo holds a Newton Fellowship which enables him to visit the University for extended periods over two years.
  • Sandra Palau Caldéron has just joined the department on a postdoctoral fellowship working within Prob-L@B. Sandra returns to the University having originally spent five months here as a visiting PhD, and SAMBa aligned, student in 2015.

To build on the relationships further, SAMBa student, Dorka Fekete is developing strong research collaborations with Juan Carlos and Sandra, has already spent significant amounts of time visiting CIMAT, and has joint publications in progress.

Strengthening research links

A research project is taking place through a collaboration between Alex Cox (Bath) and Daniel Hernandez Hernandez (CIMAT), awarded funding of £8,200 from a 2-year Newton research grant, which also includes provision for further BUC activities.

Kirill Cherednichenko is also pursuing research activities with Luis Silva's group at UNAM. Kirill says: “It is exciting to see the potential that building interactions with Mexico has unlocked and I am confident that there is more to come in terms of high-quality joint research and student exchange.”

The Department hosted Victor Rivero from August 2014 until August 2015, who was funded by ESPRC and the University of Bath’s International Office. Victor has just been named as Chair of the Academic Section of CIMAT. Through his strong relationship with Bath, as well as the others that are being built up across Mexico, it is hoped that this excellent and fruitful relationship can be grown further and deliver even more high impact research collaborations.