Ambassador meeting to revive the Imperial Alumni Association of Argentina

Local alumni joined Imperial Ambassador, Dr Aldo Boccaccini, to explore the potential for reviving the Argentina alumni group - Thursday 26 April 2007

It was nice to have a meeting like this after so many years, the last one was held in the late 1990s!

The meeting began with the introduction of every one of the attendees, followed by a Power Point presentation given by Dr Boccaccini, referring to the current status of the activities of the Imperial College.  After this, there was an interesting exchange of views about the possibilities of increasing the frequency of these meetings and the activities of the Association in Argentina.

Most of the Argentinian alumni have been supported namely through scholarships given by government institutions, private funds or corporations. It is obvious that due to the high costs of fees the only way to assure a constant flow of new students relies on the possibilities that this kind of support can be reassumed by some of these organizations or new ones.

One of the areas showing interesting prospects in Argentina is mining. This industry is relatively recent but very active and there are not enough human resources with the required capabilities. This is one of the targets to look for new sponsors as was pointed out by alumnus, Rodrigo Lencina, who works for a mining corporation.

Looking for direct contacts between groups of research and labs in Argentina with the counterpart at the College would also be an appropriate way to help the increase in academic and future business relationship. The ITBA (Technological Institute of Buenos Aires, http://www.itba.edu.ar) is one of the institutions with more capabilities and prestige that would be interested in this type of joint research. Their policies to support the Institute during the last ten years, even when with a lesser degree of development, converge with the ones of the IC. This option was stressed by Fernando Iñon and Rodolfo Gayoso. Fernando is a lecturer at the ITBA and will transmit these comments to one of the academic authorities. Rodolfo Gayoso will contact the heads of the Petroleum Engineering Lab, specialist in Reservoir Fluid Thermodynamics who are qualified Petroleum Engineers with many years of experience in the oil industry.

Another interesting option that Rodolfo Gayoso recommended to look for direct contacts between research groups is the Universidad de San Martín (http://www.unsam.edu.ar). This University have strong relationships with many academic institutions abroad and also give support through scolarships to outstanding students. Rodolfo will contact the academic authorities to explore the mentioned alternatives. 

We think that the other alumni that were not present at the meeting will also add to this first ideas their own views that may show more ways to explore and contact other research groups and universities of their knowledge.

We will inform the College and the Argentinian Alumni about the advancement on these attempts and any other that may arise.

Kind regards,

Rodolfo E. Gayoso