The new director of the UCM research center takes office

As the main person in charge of CIEAM, the doctor in Evolutionary Biology Hugo Benítez hopes to increase the scientific capacity of the university and balance the number of women and men dedicated to research.

“We are not an island, our researchers can work both as a team and for the faculties.” In this way, the new director of the Research Center for Advanced Studies of the Maule (CIEAM), Hugo Benítez, described one of the goals that he will assume within his three-year term. “The center has worked for a long time like an island-he pointed out he-he, when in reality we are all academics from the same university”.

The Research Center for Advanced Studies of the Maule, dependent on the Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies of the UCM, aims to increase the scientific capacities of the campus, generating responses to problems of regional, national and international interest.

“The CIEAM has 35 academics with different lines of research, ranging from Natural and Biological Sciences to Educational Sciences. Given this variety of lines, the idea is to organize nuclei that can work independently, apply for projects that give life to the university and produce better research for the Maule region”, emphasized the doctor in Evolutionary Biology.

Benítez, who has extensive experience in ecology and evolution, mainly in geometric morphometry, and has taught numerous courses abroad on behalf of the UCM, said that the center should also focus on providing postgraduate teaching. “We have a pending SWOT to analyze our weaknesses and strengths and get to know each other as a team,” he said.

Research and gender equity

In tune with the recently announced Comprehensive Gender Equity and Diversity Policy of the campus, the new CIEAM director said that he will promote a balance between the number of women and men dedicated to research.

“We started by addressing the gaps last year, when we joined a successful VRIP postgraduate program for female researchers that allowed us to hire two new female researchers. This program is going to be maintained, to provide equity to each of the nuclei that we will make up, ”she announced.

The aforementioned regulation not only deals with matters associated with gender violence in the field of higher education, but also seeks to mainstream this perspective throughout university work.

“It is an outstanding debt; the engineering lines have few women and the health lines, more. We will try to favor balance, ”she stated.