Tag Archives: Scientific divulgation

Group participation at the ACS National Meeting

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From March 17th to March 21st, three students from my research group (Tatiana Alpízar, Andrés Borloz and Andrés Rocha) and I attended the ACS Spring 2024 conference in New Orleans, USA. The students participation was made possible through the support of the Vicerrectoría de Vida Estudiantil y Servicios Académicos (VIESA) from Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC), as well as an ACS Student Communities Professional Meeting Grant.

During the conference I presented (Division of Chemical Education: societal issues) the talk entitled “Inclusive remote international poster sessions (iRIPS): an approach for student inclusion and diversity at ACS meetings“, with the main results and suggestions from the Global Innovation Grant project developed two years ago.

During the meeting we received great news: my student, Tatiana Alpízar-Rojas received the 2024 I. M. Kolthoff Award for her work entitled “Influence of functionalization agents on hydrophobic silica aerogel structural properties“, presented as a poster in the Division of Analytical Chemistry. Tatiana is the first Central American recipient of such award. A great honor for her and our working group!

Moreover, Andrés Rocha-Valverde presented a poster entitled “Hyperpolarized MRI techniques: a proposal for the Costa Rican national health system“, within the Division of Medicinal Chemistry. His presentation offered a comprehensive overview of his research on the use of hyperpolarized methods on the Costa Rican MRI services. Additionally, Andrés Borloz-Chinchilla gave an outstanding oral presentation entitled “Nuclear magnetic resonance in Costa Rica: a historical perspective“, within the Division of the History of Chemistry. This presentation was related to our recently accepted paper on the history of NMR in the country.

We had the chance to interact with members from ACS Publications as well as students and Faculty Advisors from several ACS Student Chapters. Additionally, we initiated several discussions for potential collaborations aimed at supporting student internships and the design and development of a hyperpolarizer in Costa Rica.

Group members in Jackson Square and St Louis Cathedral
With Tatiana Alpízar after receiving her award
With Andrés Borloz after his talk
Meeting with students and Faculty Advisors from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú and from Texas Christian University

Invited talk at the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health

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I was invited to give a talk at the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health (INCIENSA), a research center from the Costa Rican National Health Ministry, in charge of the public health, food quality control and epidemiological surveillance.

The purpose of the talk was to give an overview about the advantages (and disadvantages) of low-field NMR to the researchers and staff from the Food Science Department. After the talk, it was possible to discuss research ideas and possible collaborations between INCIENSA and my research group at TEC. Moreover, I had the opportunity to visit the labs and research facilities at INCIENSA.

I would like to thank Oscar Fernández, M.Sc. for his invitation and interest on my research topics and to Thelma Alfaro, Food Science Department Coordinator, for her support during my visit.

With the staff members and researchers from the Food Science Department at INCIENSA (Cartago, Costa Rica). Photo taken by the author

Participation at the Costa Rican Chemistry Congress 2022

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After more than 30 years, the first national chemistry conference in Costa Rica (Congreso Química 2022: Hacia el Desarrollo Sostenible) was organized by the School of Chemistry at TEC, University of Costa Rica (UCR), National University of Costa Rica (UNA) and the Costa Rican National Chemistry Association. From November 29th to December 1st, in the Aula Magna at UCR (San Pedro, San José), more than 200 chemists and students presented their main research lines. On this conference, I was part of the Scientific Committee and the TEC representative in the Executive Committee, and attended as a speaker.

I presented the oral communication “Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Costa Rica: advances and perpectives“, together with my undergrad student Andrés Borloz-Chinchilla, where I showed what we have done in the last 6 years using the technique and what must be done to increase its applications.

Finally, I was invited to the TV show Onda UNED where I had the chance to talk about science (e.g. batteries and energy storage) for a general public with other colleagues, but also about our experience and impressions about the chemistry congress.

Picture in the closing ceremony at the Aula Magna (UCR)
Participation at the TV Show Onda UNED
The attendees at the Costa Rican Chemistry Congress (video taken by Diana Bökenfohr)