UCM participated in colloquium on ecosystemic health

The activity held at the Universidad Santo Tomás also addressed the paradigm of sustainable development.

A colloquium that opened up possibilities for joint research in ecosystemic health and sustainable development was held by the Universidad Católica del Maule and Universidad Santo Tomás.

«The activity highlighted the need for collaboration between the two institutions. We will hold a new colloquium, this time at UCM, to begin to formalize these collaborations,» said the director of the Center for Research in Advanced Studies of Maule (CIEAM, in Spanish), Hugo Benítez, who participated in the event as a panelist.

«Our center has a PhD in ecosystem health, with a first cohort and two lines of research; ecosystem quality and environmental epidemiology. The University of Santo Tomas has a degree in Veterinary Medicine, linked to the ‘One Health’ vision, which for us is the basis of ecosystem health. We could work together on topics such as zoonotic diseases and parasitology,» he said.

In his speech, the doctor in Evolutionary Biology positively evaluated the first year of life of the CIEAM postgraduate program, which belongs to the Universidad Católica del Maule.

«The doctorate was a very novel bet for the region, especially because of what is coming with climate change and the Long Term Climate Strategy 2050. The students have responded very well; they already have scientific publications within their first year, which shows that they are very advanced students and that they are doing quality research,» he emphasized.

The program, which began in March 2023, corresponds to the first doctorate in Chile devoted to the avant-garde approach of «One Health». «We address the link between human, animal and environmental health. If one of these elements breaks down, it is very easy to have, for example, another pandemic. Today we have the responsibility as a university to generate culture in ecosystemic health, first with our students at the academic level, but then trying to reach the community with that knowledge, to somehow reduce the chances of human infection, take better care of the environment and raise awareness about what is coming with climate change,» said Benítez.

The colloquium was attended by the director of the UCM Sustentable project, Nélida Ramírez; the member of the Applied Gerontology Research Center of the UST, Miguel Ángel Ramos; and the academic of the School of Veterinary Medicine of the same campus, Lina Correa. Doctoral students in Ecosystemic Health from the Universidad Católica del Maule also attended.

Click here to visit the CIEAM Website

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