• The research, led by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department, intends to optimize this process through new on-line air measurement equipment.

During the last couple of years, we have heard about a decline in copper production, and according to experts this is one of the reasons why the quality of the mineral has been reduced. One way to revert this situation is improving mining procedures, which is a priority for mining industry.

One of these processes is flotation, a method used to separate valuable minerals like copper from others. The process starts once the rock is ground and mixed with water to form a pulp. Some reagents that modify the mineral surface are added to this mixture. In this way, when bubbles of air are forced up through the pulp, they collide with particles and the ones containing copper, for example, go up to the surface making a froth rich in valuable mineral, ready to be removed.

This is the method studied by Dr. Miguel Maldonado, professor at the Metallurgical Engineering Department. “Although today improvements have been made to flotation process- by means of devices that measure the air flow forced into a flotation equipment or the use of cameras that continuously monitor de physical properties of the froth- we still do not have a full knowledge of how air dispersion in the bubbles affects the metallurgical performance of the process,” the researcher said.

This encouraged the academic to do a research project called “Estimating on-line air concentration in flotation systems,” funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Department (Dicyt) of Universidad de Santiago.

“We believe that this variable is important when determining the process performance, as it is related to the surface area available to collect the particles containing valuable mineral and, therefore, to the complete recovery of copper,” the researcher explained.

The researcher said that the project was born while he was doing his postdoctoral research in Canada, at McGill University, considered a pioneer institution in proposing ways of measuring this variable. At that time, while he was studying this technique, he found out a problem with the interpretation of Maxwell’s equation, which would lead to a measurement error.

For this reason, the academic decided to insist on seeking new techniques in order to solve the problem; this time, with a better knowledge of the system.

At the first stage of the research, essential aspects of the error made will be studied. For this purpose, experiments to get a better understanding of the Maxwell’s equation will be performed. McGill University will also take part in this research by sending a flotation column to support the study and by developing papers together about this topic.

At the second stage, new techniques will be explored to find a method that estimates the air concentration in real time, in order to control and optimize the process.

In the academic’s opinion, “the efficient recovery of valuable minerals like copper is very important, and this measurement method could provide significant information for optimizing the process. This will have all kinds of benefits, such as reducing the reagents added or reducing the water used. This fact is also important if we consider that in most mining operations the water resource is scarce.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• In order to meet the goals set by Universidad de Santiago in the context of the “Sustainable Campus” Clean Production Agreement, the University Social Responsibility program developed the first training workshop on this matter, oriented to students, academics and administrative staff.
• The initiative is one of the institutional actions to promote the knowledge on sustainability and to meet the goal of reducing the use of energy by 5% in the campus before March 2015, according to Santiago Peredo, RSU program’s alternate Director.
• The next workshop- on composting and vegetable gardens management- is scheduled for August. Also, the RSU program will hold seminars on the topics stemmed from the Institutional Sustainability Reports: human rights, decent work conditions, universal access to people with different skills, healthy eating and energy efficiency.

“People have become aware of environmental or sustainability matters. What we must manage now is to change some behaviors and develop some habits to be consistent with this already existing awareness,” Santiago Peredo, alternate Director of the University Social Responsibility (RSU, in Spanish) program said at the end of the first training workshop, “Self-diagnosis of energy use in buildings”, that was held by academics of Universidad de Santiago, on Friday 11th.

The workshop is part of the institutional actions to meet the goals set in the “Sustainable Campus” Clean Production Agreement (APL, in Spanish) of 2013, that seek to "promote training in this matter for professionals, students and academics of the University, and, in turn, to meet the goal of reducing the use of energy by 5% in the campus, before March 2015,” the RSU program’s alternate Director explained.

The workshop included two talks about energy efficiency. The first one was given by Professor Juan Araya, of the Bachillerato program, and the second one, by Professor Fernando Corvalán, of the Department of Geographical Engineering.

Professor Araya referred to the concept of sustainability in three interrelated aspects: environment, society and economy. The balance among the three of them becomes the sustainability equation. Professor Corvalán talked about energy efficiency in buildings, stressing the current actions taken in the building sector to save energy and the analysis of important supplementary aspects like heating, refrigeration and supply systems.

Regarding the campus, Dr. Corvalán explained that it was built according to standards that were not concerned for energy saving, such as the former EAO building and the buildings around the Planetarium. However, he emphasized that the new buildings mean an opportunity for energy sustainability.

Students, academics, professionals and administrative staff from the five units that voluntarily signed the University’s APL took part in the workshop: the Department of Geographical Engineering, the Technological Faculty, the Faculty of Administration and Economics, the Bachillerato program and the School of Architecture.

Waste management and vegetable gardens

“We prepared this series of workshops to meet the goals of training in sustainability and reducing the use of energy at the University, among others,” the RSU program’s alternate Director reiterated, as this is one of the actions established in the “Sustainable Campus” Clean Production Agreement.

The next workshop is scheduled for August and it will be about composting and vegetable gardens management, “because another goal is to reduce the solid waste produced at the University and this action could lead to new recycling processes that are not implemented now.”

“There are some initiatives to collect paper and glass in some recycling spots. We still have pending the organic waste treatment, as it is collected by an external service. The idea is that the University takes charge of the organic waste management and one way to do it is composting and the use of vegetable gardens,” Santiago Peredo added.

Pending tasks

Together with the sustainability workshops, the RSU program is planning continuous seminars that will include presentations and debates on five of the topics stemmed from the Institutional Sustainability Reports (2008-2012): human rights, decent work conditions, universal access to people with different skills, healthy eating and energy efficiency.

These five aspects are the ones that the reports have shown as weaknesses or needs. In these seminars open to the community that the RSU program plans to give every first Tuesday of the month (from August to December), the participants will evaluate the aspects that could be addressed in the workshops, according to the interests of the community.

 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

•     Physical Review Letters (PRL) will publish an article about this important development in the control of chemical reactions using quantum optics. In simple terms, Dr Herrera, researcher at Universidad de Santiago, explains that they proved that these reactions or electron transfers can be accelerated or reduced.

At the end of the month, the renowned American journal of Physics, Physical Review Letters (PRL) of the American Physical Society (APS), will publish an important discovery in this field made by Dr Felipe Herrera, professor at the Department of Physics of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, and Dr Francis C. Spano, professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA.

The article (“Cavity-controlled chemistry in molecular ensembles”) will highlight the development made by these researchers in the control of chemical reactions by means of quantum physics. In simple terms, Dr Herrera explains that they proved that these reactions or electron transfers can be accelerated or reduced.

Graphically, the model consists of an optical cavity surrounded by two mirrors that do not allow light to go through, “so the amount of energy is the minimum possible in an electromagnetic field. That is to say, there is cero or one unit of light energy, which is also called photon,” Dr Herrera explains.

Dr Herrera remembers that, at a first stage, they asked themselves about “the effects that the optical cavity could have on chemical reactions or electron transfers: if the cavity would accelerate them, suppress them or if nothing would happen at all.”

In this context, the researcher says that they finally “found a mechanism through which this quantum optical cavity can dramatically accelerate the reaction and electron transfer in molecules.”

The basics

With regards to this theoretical discovery, Dr Herrera explains the process: “First, there are two players: the electron that is going to be transferred and the vibration of the molecules that, in a way, affect how this electron is going to be transferred from one place to another. If there is too much vibration, the electron will be disturbed and the transfer will be inefficient.”

“When you add another factor, like the optical cavity, there is a third player: the photon, which will now interact with the electron inside the cavity,” he says.  

“We discovered that quantized light plays a game in which the electron becomes a photon and the photon turns again into an electron and vice versa. The game only occurs inside the cavity and it makes the electron to stop interacting with the vibration, eliminating or blocking vibrations,” he explains. 

With regard to what material inside the cavity accelerates or reduces the electron transfer, Dr Herrera says that they have tested organic materials or organic molecules, like the ones that form the human body. “This organic material could also be a protein, according to the experiments conducted by other researchers that have based their studies on our discovery,” he adds.

Physical Review Letters

The article about this development was first published in the online edition of Physical Review Letters and, at the end of June, it will be published in the print edition. Dr Herrera says this is a great honor for them, as this journal is the most prestigious one in the field of Physics.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The Academic Vice President, Fernanda Kri, said that after testing the pilot program in more than a thousand students of the Faculty of Engineering, the system that combines on-line learning opportunities with face-to-face sessions, proved to work in a similar way to a traditional course. “The goal is to implement this system for all our undergraduate programs in the first semester 2014, according to our Institutional Strategic Plan, which stipulates the promotion of the English language among our students,” Vice President Kri said.

In April this year, our University’s Academic Vice Presidency, together with the Consejo Superior de Docencia (the consulting body to the Academic Vice Presidency) and the Educational Innovation Unit started implementing an English language B-Learning pilot program for students of the Faculty of Engineering in order to evaluate the system’s operation and extend its application to other undergraduate programs of Universidad de Santiago.

The B-Learning method combines on-line content delivery with face-to-face sessions. It was implemented with the support of our University’s Department of Linguistics and Literature for one thousand and fifty students during one semester.

After concluding this first evaluation stage, the results proved to be very positive; hence, the academic authority started promoting its implementation in all undergraduate programs, according to one of the goals of the Institutional Strategic Plan, which stipulates the promotion of the English language among the students.

On November 27th, the Academic Vice President, Fernanda Kri, had a meeting with the academic community to inform about the results of this first B-Learning experience. She described it as “successful”, both logistically and academically.

“We confirmed that students who participated in B-Learning lessons acquired and English language knowledge similar to the one acquired in one semester of face-to-face sessions,” she said.

Due to this positive evaluation, the Academic Vice President invited all undergraduate programs to be part of the initiative.

“The purpose of the meeting (held on November 27th) was to show these results to the different faculties, hoping that most of them will join in this project and include it formally in the programs’ curricula as of March 2014,” she said.

“We expect all students at the University reach at least an intermediate level of English and for that to happen, they need to take four consecutive English courses, lasting one semester each, as this is the only way of having continuity in learning,” she added.

Vice President Kri concluded by saying that, besides the good results, “Students showed themselves very motivated for using technological tools and for learning English early in their programs. All this gives us good expectations about the contribution that this project may be to our community once it is extended to all undergraduate programs and, in the future, to graduate programs.”
 
The details about a successful program

Ricardo Úbeda, professor at the Department of Linguistics and Literature, who is in charge of the program, informed that out of one thousand and fifty students who took the B-Learning course, 182 passed the initial diagnostic test and were exempt from the final test, while 744 students totally passed the course.

Another announcement was the implementation of more mechanisms to allow the interaction between students and teachers, like Skype, that can help to solve questions in a direct way.

“Finally, with this course, all our expectations were met and we were able to see the high level of commitment that the students of our University have with their integral learning process,” professor Úbeda stressed during the presentation of the results of this B-Learning system.

Translated by Marcela Contreras.

• The candidacy of the renowned electrochemist for the highest scientific award of the country is supported by our University and different associations and representatives of the national and international scientific world.

With the support of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, through its highest authority, President Juan Manuel Zolezzi, the candidacy application of the University’s renowned researcher was submitted last week. He has been recognized by his peers and has been honored by international scientific societies that validate the experience and contributions made by this researcher of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology.

The National Award is the maximum prize given by the State to acknowledge the work made by Chileans who stand out by their excellence, creativity and significant contribution to culture and the development of different areas of knowledge and the arts.

In the University’s scientific community nobody has been awarded this prize yet; for this reason, Maritza Páez and Jorge Pavez, both academics at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, did not hesitate to promote Doctor José Zagal’s nomination to the National Award of Natural Sciences 2014, who has been honored both in Chile and abroad.

Contribution to education

Jorge Pavez, a researcher, and Maritza Páez, the Director of the Department of Chemistry of Materials of Universidad de Santiago, were both among Dr. Zagal’s students and they highlight his enormous contribution to teaching, as well as his scientific career. At an academic level, they stress the work he has done directing Master’s degree and doctoral dissertations.

“Dr. Zagal’s contribution is notable, because it has positioned Universidad de Santiago and the country in the electrochemistry research world scene,” Dr. Pavez said. He added that Dr. Zagal’s nomination is based on his career throughout these years contributing to this field, both at a scientific and at an educational level, at training new generations.”

Also, professor Pavez said: “His contribution to electrochemistry has gone beyond the country’s borders and the region. Proofs of this are the two international prizes that were awarded to him this year by the world most renowned scientific societies in this field: the Electrochemical Society (ECS), in the United States, and the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), in Europe, that record the highest-impact publications on electrochemistry.”

In April and June, both societies, ECS and ISE, sent Dr. Zagal letters of recognition appointing him “Fellow”, “for his exceptional contribution to electrochemistry” and “scientific achievements.” The ISE has scheduled its awarding ceremony for September, during its annual meeting in Switzerland, while the ECS has scheduled its ceremony for October, during its bi-annual meeting that will be held in Mexico.

Valuable work

According to the candidate for the National Award of Natural Sciences, this year 2014 has been especially meaningful due to the recognition of his work. On the one hand, he received the recognition of the societies mentioned above, and on the other, he received the support from the University and his peers.

“Curiously, this year I have been honored by two international associations and I think this is important, because they are external organizations that recognize that, at Universidad de Santiago, our work is valuable,” Dr. Zagal said.

In addition, renowned scientists of other universities support him too and so do the editors of noted international publications in which he is part of the editorial board, like the Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, Electrochemistry Communications, International Journal of Electrochemistry, Electrocatalysis, International Journal of Biotechnology & Biochemistry, ISRN Electrochemistry, Electrochemistry Communications, Journal of the Serbian Chemical Society and Electrochemical Energy Technology.

At present, Dr. Zagal is working in two lines of research at Universidad de Santiago: The development of electrodes for energy conversion systems and the development of sensors for detecting substances in fluids.

“There are prominent scientists at our University, but none of them has been honored with a National Award and I believe that sometime one of them should be awarded a prize like this; this would be very important for the prestige of our University, because it is one of the universities that conducts more research in Chile,” Dr. Zagal said.

The jury that will decide on the National Award 2014 (according to Law 19.169) is made up by the Minister of Education, Nicolás Eyzaguirre; the President of Universidad de Chile, Ennio Vivaldi; the President of the Chilean Academy of Science of Instituto Chile, Juan Alfonso Asenjo; the President of Universidad de Antofagasta (on behalf of the CRUCH), Alberto Loyola Morales; and the previous award winner (2012), Bernabé Santelices González

Translated by Marcela Contreras

•  Carolina Aliaga, professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago was appointed representative in Latin America by her peers during the last meeting of the Inter-American Photochemical Society. “It is a recognition for the work we have done at the university, the place of birth of Photochemistry in our continent, where several generations have been trained in this field,” she said.

During the 25^th Meeting of the Inter-American Photochemical Society (I-APS), Carolina Aliaga, professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago, was appointed representative of this society in Latin America. She is the first Chilean to hold this position.

The meeting was held in Chile, for the first time, between May 24^th-27^th, at the Centro de Extensión of Universidad Católica, in Santiago. Carolina Aliaga and Alexis Aspee, both professors at Universidad de Santiago, were part of the organizing committee.

“All the participants were so glad about the high level of the meeting. It was beyond their expectations,” professor Aliaga said. “They all appreciated the level of the works presented.”

The organizing committee had the collaboration of researchers at Universidad Católica, Universidad de Chile and Universidad Andrés Bello. More than 150 people attended the activity: undergraduate and graduate students, professors and researchers from USA, Spain, Germany and Argentina, among other countries.

The meeting, which focal point was Photochemistry, included works related to bioenergy, nanocatalysis, photoluminescence, photodynamic therapies, basic chemistry and others.

“I feel glad because everyone can contribute to science development through cooperation and generate new collaboration opportunities among researchers,” professor Aliaga said. “This is a recognition for the work we have done at the university, the place of birth of Photochemistry in our continent, where several generations have been trained in this field,” she added.

Regarding her new position, she will act on behalf of the association suggesting speakers for future meetings, awards for experienced researchers and young researchers, among others.

“I think the first challenge I have to face is to position the names of researchers who are just starting in this field and support good students,” she said.

The Inter-American Photochemical Society has more than 600 members in academia, industry, and government throughout North and South America. It promotes collaborative networks among its members, so that they can share their experiences and knowledge.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Professor Osvaldo García was invited to give a presentation on an organizational self-observation tool, called CLEHES©, to postdoctoral students of Takashi Ikegami Laboratory, an institution specialized in the field of artificial life, at University of Tokyo.

More than ten years ago, Osvaldo García, professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering of Universidad de Santiago, started to develop CLEHES, a tool that intends the individual to generate learning, both at a personal level and at workl, through self-observation and the observation of interactions among human beings and their constituting networks, developing a diagnosis and an organizational design through Body, Language, Emotion, History, Eros and Silence (CLEHES©, its acronym in Spanish).

The contribution made by the course given by professor García, called Human Reengineering for Action (Rihpla, its acronym in Spanish), of the Department of Industrial Engineering, together with the academic prominence and prestige of CLEHES, made the publication of this innovative tool to be among the 100 most important international scientific publications in the field. In turn, it called the attention of different institutions that were interested in this emerging and effective technology.

For this reason, the professor Takashi Ikegami´s artificial life laboratory at the renowned University of Tokyo, in Japan, contacted professor García and invited him to give a presentation in September 2013 to graduate students at that Asian institution.

Professor García explained that, at Takashi Ikegami Laboratory, where the latest advances in robotics are being developed, they had a closed seminar for postdoctoral students and, besides, they explored the applications of CLEHES to the field of artificial life.”

“Students there made an effort to evaluate what changes could be made to apply some aspects of CLEHES´ structural dynamics to robot building,” García said. “We even talked about the possibility of generating a CLEHES-Robotics tool in collaboration with our University,” he added.

Professor García, an academic at Universidad de Santiago, stressed that, in Japan, robot building “is not approached through aggressive or merely recreational policies. It is considered a contribution to society, for example, to help senior citizens.” Therefore, the social self-observation tool CLEHES would be very useful.

Professor García showed himself satisfied with the new possibilities of internationalization and collaborative work with Japanese specialists opened by the research during the Rihpla course and CLEHES, and besides, he highlighted the concept of applied “ortho-discipline”, that is to say, to respect the autonomy of the different specialists involved in a collaborative project.

“In the Japanese culture, it takes time to establish collaborative relationships, but even so, we were able to forge significant links with them and also with the Japanese Embassy, where entrepreneurship and innovation are developing valuable bilateral ties,” professor García concluded.

CLEHES used by young researchers

Susana Gómez, who is doing her dissertation on diagnosis for her Master´s degree in Engineering Sciences using CLEHES technology, said that this innovative tool has been very useful to young students who pursue a specialization in management solutions.

“The networks created due to the international prominence of CLEHES have been amazing,” she said.

“This is a really new tool for management that is gaining strength and is being put into practice. Japanese specialists have the theoretical knowledge and the laboratories, but they have not put this technology into practice. Here in Chile, we have taken it to companies and schools and we have also applied it in our academic unit both in undergraduate and graduate students,” she said

For his part, Roberto Álvarez, a student who obtained his Master´s degree in Engineering Sciences by doing his dissertation using CLEHES to solve organizational problems said: “This management tool has been very helpful for my professional career and for working at big companies.”

“Besides, studying and applying this meta-discipline has helped us to open opportunities and to differentiate ourselves from other universities’ students,” he concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• During the 226^th meeting of the Electrochemical Society (ECS), the researcher at Universidad de Santiago was appointed Fellow of the 2014 ECS Class for his contribution to the progress of science and technology, his leadership in this discipline and his active membership in the ECS. He became the first active researcher in a Latin American country to be awarded this honor.
• Dr. Zagal showed himself gratified at receiving this award from this international scientific society with more than 100 years of history that has gathered together the most renowned scientists and innovators in the world. “My achievements in this field are the result of many years working with excellent colleagues and collaborators and outstanding students. This award encourages me to continue giving my students my best, with devotion and eagerness, and promoting our University research work around the world,” he said.
• This year, professor Zagal, academic at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology, was also honored by the International Society of Electrochemistry of Europe and was a candidate for the National Award of Natural Sciences.

Scientists from all over the world met in Cancun, Mexico, to hold the 226^th version of the bi-annual meeting of the Electrochemical Society (ECS), a scientific American society founded in 1902 that gathers together more than 8 thousand 700 scientists in the field of electrochemistry.

The meeting was attended by more than 2 thousand people and included several activities, among which it is worth to mention the 2014 ECS Class Fellow award ceremony. Fifteen international scientists were appointed Fellows and one of them was Dr. José Zagal, researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile. He was honored for his contribution to the progress of science and technology, his leadership in the field of electrochemistry and his active membership in the ECS. He is the first active researcher in a Latin American country to be awarded this honor.

“It is very gratifying to me to be awarded this honor because our work is being recognized by an international scientific society founded and based in the United States, with more than 100 years of history and that has gathered renowned scientists and innovators in the world, like Thomas Edison, for example,” Dr. Zagal said.

According to Dr. Zagal, the honor he was awarded – that can be added to the one he received this year from the International Society of Electrochemistry of Europe-, “confirms that we are being recognized abroad,” making reference to the strong research groups in the field of electrochemistry that work at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago.

“I speak in plural, because my achievements in this field are the result of many years working with excellent colleagues and collaborators and outstanding students. This award particularly encourages me to continue giving my students my best, with devotion and eagerness, and promoting our University research work around the world,” he added.

Finally, Dr. Zagal thanked the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology and Universidad de Santiago for their unconditional support during his 41 years of work at this institution.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

 A research team led by Dr Claudio Vásquez Guzmán, professor at the Department of Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, proved that Antarctic bacteria are able to resist tellurium when they are exposed to oxidative stress.

Dr Claudio Vásquez, professor at the Department of Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, together with his research team, proved that Antarctic bacteria are able to resist tellurium when they are exposed to oxidative stress. 

Tellurium (Te) is one of the many elements in the Periodic Table. It belongs to the same chemical family as oxygen, sulfur, and selenium, which are considered essential to life. However, until now, we still do not know if this element has any biological function. For this reason, the research team of the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, led by Dr Claudio Vásquez, has studied this element for years, trying to understand the molecular basis of its toxicity.

Since 2013, Dr Vásquez and Dr José Manuel Pérez, of Universidad Andrés Bello, have worked together in the Regular Fondecyt Project N° 1130362 “Tellurite-resistant Antarctic bacteria: Unveiling new toxicant resistance mechanisms,” which was recently completed.

“The hypothesis of our project was the following: As bacteria living in the Antarctica are resistant and adapted to oxidative stress, they should be resistant to tellurite. The idea was to find super-resistant bacteria that could help to establish the usefulness of tellurium to the cell,” Dr Vásquez explained.

The idea of the project came from the observation of isolated samples collected from different places in the Chilean Antarctica. They visited the Prat and Escudero Antarctic Bases, Deception Island and Fildes Peninsula and travelled on the Almirante Óscar Viel ice-breaker of the Chilean Army, where they were able to find, isolate and describe microorganisms resistant to oxidative stress and tellurite.

Tellurium is primarily used in the manufacturing of solar cells. According to Dr Vásquez, “It is an essential part of photoelectric cells that capture sunlight and transform it into electricity.” This is the reason why this element is a potential source of energy. “Now we need to create a system to remove tellurium from the environment, because it is very scarce,” he added.

In Chile, tellurium is produced as a byproduct of the copper refining process. It settles as anode slime and it is not recovered. “If we store it and control it well, we could contribute to prevent its potentially toxic effect on the flora and fauna,” he said.

Dr Vásquez concluded by saying that Universidad de Santiago has been really important during the conduct of this study for its support and constant collaboration.

• In recognition of his extensive career in the area of electrochemistry, Dr. José Zagal, professor at the Department of Chemistry of Materials, was invited to be part of the editorial board of Electrochemistry Communications, an international journal with the higher impact index in its field.

Dr. José Zagal, professor at the Department of Chemistry of Materials of our university, was selected to be part of the editorial board of Electrochemistry Communications, the renowned scientific journal partnered with Elsevier that has the higher impact index in the field of electrochemistry.

In a conversation with UdeSantiago al Día, the academic said that he understood his inclusion in the board as “recognition of my work over many years; but most important, the recognition of a work that has mainly been done by a team.”

Professor Zagal has a vast experience in the scientific research field, particularly in the study of oxygen and reactivity. He started to work at Universidad de Santiago 40 years ago and he has kept on publishing specialized articles in his field of interest since then.

Besides, he has been part of editorial boards of different scientific journals, like the International Journal of Electrochemistry of Hindawi Publishing Corporation, since 2011 and the International Journal of Biotechnology & Biochemistry (IJBB), since 2012.

Zagal said that it is very important that both students and academics produce publications in their fields and get involved in different creative processes “to contribute not only to this University’s development but to all the country.”

“I think that it is necessary that students in any program should take part in creative and practical processes, that is to say, they should get involved in laboratory work since their first years at the university, so that they produce new knowledge that can reach most of the people through renowned publications,” he said.

“Publishing research results is essential. When you make public the work you do, your work becomes recognized in that field and, at the same time, you spread new knowledge,” he added.

For this reason, professor Zagal expects that his role at the Electrochemistry Communications’ editorial board means a contribution to the promotion of sciences and to the better positioning of Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

“You stay at this university because you love it and not for the money. Many researchers here might well be working at private sector companies, but they stay here because they feel a real bond with this institution,” he said.

“For the love that I have for this University, I expect that my inclusion in the editorial board will benefit the institution and will contribute to spread knowledge among society,” Dr. Zagal concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras