Chilean universities and the Regional Government of Magallanes inaugurate Cape Horn Sub-Antarctic Center

Infrastructure of 2,581 square meters, built between 2018 and 2022, becomes a point of development for higher education, science and culture in favor of the inhabitants of Puerto Williams, but also at a national and international level.

PUC Communications.- The discovery of the plaque on the access front and the cutting of the ribbon marked the end of the inauguration ceremony of the Cape Horn Sub-Antarctic Center in the city of Puerto Williams, in the Cabo de Hornos commune.

The building, with iconic architecture and large windows that offer a panoramic view of Puerto Williams and the Beagle Channel, becomes a benchmark for the development of science through Cape Horn International Center, CHICbasal project that leads the Magellan University in a consortium that also includes the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, University of Chile, central University, University of Talca, Catholic University of Temuco, University of the Lakes and the Aysén Patagonia Ecosystem Research Center.

“We are proud to be part of this center, together with other institutions and under the leadership of the University of Magallanes. Collaborative work and decentralization are key aspects to become a knowledge-based society”, said the UC Vice Chancellor for Research, Pedro Bouchon, who participated in the ceremony, together with the Director of Research, María Elena Boisier.

“We are proud to be part of this center, together with other institutions and under the leadership of the University of Magallanes. Collaborative work and decentralization are key aspects to become a knowledge-based society” – Pedro Bouchon, UC Research Vice Chancellor

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«When we talk about excellent research from the territories, this center is a great example. I am convinced that interesting contributions will be made from here on topics such as ecology, education and food,” said María Elena Boisier.

At the beginning of the inauguration ceremony in the auditorium of the Cabo de Hornos Subantarctic Center, it was the mayor of the commune, Patricio Fernández, who highlighted the importance it acquires for the Antarctic province and for port williams the availability of this center in favor of science, sustainable tourism, culture and education. In addition, he valued its design that is combined in a communal regulatory plan linked to environmental value and that promotes it as a commune-park, attached since 2022 to the so-called World Biological Corridor, being kilometer zero.

your north is in the south

Then it was the rector of the University of Magallanes, José Maripani, who highlighted the phrase “Your north is in the south” when alluding to the inverted map of South America by the Uruguayan sculptor, Joaquín Torres-García, situating the Region of Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctic at the latitudinal summit.

He emphasized the decision of the Regional Government of Magallanes when, in a decentralizing signal, it authorized the resources to build the center in Puerto Williams and thereby strengthen the development of science and education in that territory on the shores of the Beagle Channel.

“We are pleased to materialize today a space that mobilizes and generates human capital. A meeting place for the community and that undoubtedly allows the generation of cultural, artistic, research and training activities, as has already been happening under the protection of events promoted jointly with the Basal project that we lead”, said the rector of the UMAG.

Then he recalled that the University of Magallanes for decades, with visits from its researchers, was projecting how to promote science in that place, when at the beginning of the 2000s, Dr. Francisca Massardo and Dr. Ricardo Rozzi, who were positioning the university institution and making visible the importance of investigating the microcosm, starting the university center in 2002.

He listed that annually, on average, some 250 researchers come to work at the Omora Ethnobotanical Park and adjacent sectors of Puerto Williams, and so far this year there have been another 40.

Maripani pointed out that since the Subantarctic Center opened, some 1,500 people have visited it, including residents of Puerto Williams, researchers, internship students, and international visitors who have participated in activities related to science and the local community, such as workshops for Initial School Education, the presentation and inauguration of the first technical career and other local activities.

The rector of UMAG reiterated the institution’s commitment to Puerto Williams to implement diploma and postgraduate programs in the biocultural field, promote training courses according to the needs of the community and also integrated actions with the Yagan community. “We want to be part of the Puerto Williams community and we will always be open to evaluating new options for opening training courses,” he said.

Southernmost University Center in the world

Dr. Francisca Massardo, director of the Cabo de Hornos Subantarctic Center, stressed that having this infrastructure also coincides with the approval by the National Agency for Research and Development of the first basal center located at the University of Magallanes, such as the International Center Cape Horn, CHIC its acronym in English, with the applied research proposal based on an innovative biocultural integration of natural and social sciences, philosophy, education, humanities and arts and in a territory and territory with national and international projection. international

“This space consolidates more than two decades of uninterrupted work carried out in the Cabo de Hornos commune by the University of Magallanes in close collaboration with the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, the Omora Foundation and the University of North Texas, in the United States. It is in this center where today we continue to receive researchers, graduates, preschoolers, students, teachers, artists, philosophers and thinkers from Chile and the world”, he highlighted.

The minister of Public WorksJessica López, highlighted the challenges faced by the Salfa company and the MOP to build this infrastructure with a pandemic involved and overcome the logistical issue such as moving 280 tons of steel from Santiago by land and sea to Navarino Island.

The ceremony concluded with a message from the governor of the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic RegionJorge Flies, who said: “We want a region that is world science and here is a work of State, a work that was dreamed of years ago, that was tendered in one government, that its execution began in another and is finished in the government of President Gabriel Boric”.

He recalled that many told him that it was crazy to build this infrastructure in a commune of two thousand inhabitants, but it was achieved thanks to the Special Plan for the Development of Extreme Zones that provided the resources for the initial studies of the project.

“Here we are inaugurating this work that changes and cooperates with the future, the present and recovers the past of this place”, highlighted the regional governor while thanking the Magallanes Regional Council for approving the resources for the construction.

Then he valued the work of science, the promotion of higher education by UMAG and the contribution that will mean having the first laboratory for monitoring red tide in Puerto Williams and that will work in the Cape Horn Subantarctic Center.