The outcome of the 2017-18 call for the UK-Mexico Visiting Chair scheme has been announced.

Dr. Tara Schiller from WMG has be awarded Warwick’s 2017-18 UK-Mexico Visiting Chair. Dr. Schiller will be undertaking a visit to the University of Guadalajara and the University of Guanajuato in Spring 2018. The visit will allow Dr. Schiller, who specialises in the synthesis and characterisation of polymer and polymer nanocomposites, to share Warwick expertise with Mexican counterparts, better understand the areas of complementarity between the research groups and plan for next steps for collaboration.

Dr. Schiller commented:

“My focus is on both materials characterisation and novel nanocomposite materials towards application in automotive and biomedical sectors. The visit to Guadalajara will allow me to further pursue renewable materials and understand better their utility. I am delighted to have been awarded this funding and look forward to representing Warwick and further developing my research collaborations with partners in Mexico”

Under the bilateral scheme, Warwick will also be welcoming a Visiting Chair from Mexico. Professor Martin Rigoberto Arellano Martinez, also from the University of Guadalajara, will be hosted by Professor Kerry Kirwan and colleagues from the Materials GRP in 2018.

Warwick is delighted to be participating in an innovative initiative bringing together 12 UK and 12 Mexican universities aimed at fostering academic mobility between the two countries.

Initially proposed by the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID), the Mexico-UK Visiting Chair Initiative encourages senior researchers from prestigious UK and Mexican universities spend up to two weeks each year working collaboratively to explore new and exciting links in research and teaching. Now in its second year, the call is underpinned by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Warwick and 11 other Russell Group universities signed in 2015.

Warwick’s research collaborations with Mexico currently span all four faculties. Professor Christopher James (Biomedical Engineering) was Warwick’s first recipient of the UK-Mexico Visiting Chair grant (2016-17), visiting UAM and Tec de Monterrey in May 2017.

The next call will open in Spring 2018 for the 2018-19 Visiting Chair.  For further information contact Emily Lim in International Strategy and Relations.