English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

I his offi ce at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav) in Saltillo, Mexico, Eddie laughs as he recalls his childhood days. “It was a bit of a strange transition. I knew I could be a good lawyer, but I knew I wasn’t going to have any fun.” Today, Eddie is principal investigator of the Energy and Water Research Lab at Cinvestav-Saltillo. His group designs materials for nuclear and renewable energy applications as well as materials for removing arsenic from drinking water. Despite his shift in career goals, one factor would endure as a mainstay of Eddie’s educational career: longdistance travel. After graduating with a BS degree in chemistry from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in 2002, Eddie left his home country to pursue postgraduate degrees in materials science at The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. He spent two years there as a research associate and one as a fellow at the European Commission in Germany before making the difficult decision to return to Mexico. Eddie recounts that many of his friends and he had left Mexico to pursue opportunities that just were not available in their country at the time or to enjoy comforts they could not fi nd at home. “A lot of us leave to seek a better life for our family,” he says. “For example, my family and I lived in a town near the Rhine in Germany. It was gorgeous—an extremely tranquil lifestyle.” But even then, Eddie says, the situation can be complicated, and he admits that despite the comfort and security, it was not always easy living as a family abroad. During his fellowship in Germany, several job offers afforded Eddie the unique opportunity of choosing to remain in Europe or return to Mexico. Eddie and his wife came very close to moving to England but ultimately chose to be close to their extended family in Mexico City. As part of that commitment and because of his career, Eddie has dedicated many of his efforts to improving what he perceives to be a systemic problem in his home country. “In Mexico,” Eddie says, “we don’t have a culture of science outreach. There are very few schools that have the laboratories or resources to organize such activities.” It is a predicament Eddie can well recall living. His daily trips to the school where his mother taught were a constant reminder that educational resources in rural communities were starkly different from those in the city. A large part of the problem, Eddie says, is that outreach activities are often considered secondary to other scientifi c duties; they are simply not part of the job. “That’s the attitude among many of us researchers—who are the most educated and probably the most qualifi ed to show kids how fantastic science and technology are.” As a researcher at Cinvestav, Eddie is helping combat this problem by organizing outreach events such as CinvesniñosSaltillo, which invites children under 12 to learn about the research problems being tackled at the Center. Eddie and his colleagues are also the recipients of a 2015 Grassroots Grant from the Materials Research Society (MRS) Foundation. The Grassroots initiative helps MRS members launch projects that engage the general public in Eddie López Honorato of Cinvestav in Satillo, Mexico. The sun has not risen yet, but Eddie López Honorato is already on his way to school. He can feel the car’s wheels tossing and turning as they carry him, his sisters, and his parents away from the bustling metropolis of Mexico City and toward the rural town where Eddie’s mother teaches an elementary class. It is an hours-long trip that his family makes every morning. In his mind, Eddie sees himself becoming a successful lawyer, but he does not realize he is already on the road to becoming a scientist.

Hagamos con-Ciencia: Eddie López Honorato takes the lab to the children