THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS P. O. Box 830688 Richardson, Texas 75083-0688

News Release
For Immediate Release

Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies’
Lecture Series to Resume Friday

RICHARDSON, Texas (Sept. 21, 2004) — The Center for U.S.–Mexico Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) will resume its educational lecture series — now in its fourth year — about topics of interest to both the United States and Mexico on Friday, Sept. 24.

For the 2004–05 academic year, U.S.–Mexico scholars will share their expertise about such topics as laminar mixing, the human genome, U.S.–Mexico diplomatic relations, the Mexican electoral system and 20th-Century Mexican classical music.

The lectures, which are free and open to the public, will be held on the UTD campus and will conclude with a question-and-answer segment. The schedule is as follows:

• Dr. Mario Moisés Alvarez — Sept. 24, 2–3 p.m., Room 2.112, School of Management -- Mixing in Bio-Reactors, co-sponsored by UTD’s School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Alvarez is director of the Center for Biotechnology at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico. An expert on laminar mixing, which involves mixing operations at low speed or in high-viscosity conditions, Alvarez will discuss the application of mixing knowledge as it relates to the design of bio-reactors.
  
  
• Araxi Urrutia — Oct. 18, 12-1 p.m., Room 2.306, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Complex — Functional Optimization of Human Genome, co-sponsored by UTD’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Technology. Urrutia’s expertise is in the field of human genomics. Her research has been published in Nature Genetics, as well as other scientific journals and shows that the order in the human genome is not as random as was previously thought, but rather genes are sorted according to their levels of activity.
  
  
• Adolfo Aguilar Zinser — Nov. 18, 12:30–1:45 p.m., Room 2.302, Cecil H. Green Hall — Perspectives On U.S.-Mexico Relations: Subordination or Interdependence? co-sponsored by UTD’s Eugene McDermott Library. Zinser served as national security adviser and commissioner in charge of coordinating for Mexico’s President, Vicente Fox. He also served as foreign policy co-coordinator for the transition team put together by Fox after his electoral victory. From January 2002 to November 2003, Zinser served as ambassador of Mexico to the United Nations, where he was an advisor to the security council.
  
  
• Dr. Jacqueline Peschard — Feb. 15, 2005, 12:30–1:45 p.m., Room 4.614, Erik Jonsson Academic Center — The Dilemmas of the Democratic Consolidation in Mexico, co-sponsored with UTD’s School of Social Sciences. Peschard was a council member for Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute, where she oversaw electoral reforms in Mexico for more than seven years. During her tenure, Peschard promoted important reforms that helped ensure the transparency of the Mexican electoral system. She is the author of several books, including The Democratic Political Culture, The Voice of the Votes: A Critical Analysis of the 1994 Elections and Democracy and Political Representation, among others. In May 2004, Peschard was elected by the United Nations as one of the four specialists to advise about the design of the electoral council of Iraq.
  
  
• Jose Luis Castillo — March 23, 2005, 10–11 a.m., Jonsson Performance Hall — From the Late Baroque to the Twentieth Century, the Mexican Interpretation, co-sponsored by UTD’s School of Arts and Humanities. Castillo’s works have been selected for important music festivals all over the world. As a composer-conductor, he performs mainly 20 th-Century pieces, although his repertoire includes music from the late Baroque period. He is an analysis teacher and lecturer at various universities and conservatoires around the world. Currently, he is principal conductor of Mexico’s Camerata de las Américas and music director of the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra in Mexico.
  For additional information about the lecture series, please contact Gabriela Carrera at gaby@student.utdallas.edu or (972) 883 6401, or visit the center’s web site at http://www.utdallas.edu/research/cusms/lectureseries.htm.

About the Center for U.S.–Mexico Studies

The Center for U.S.–Mexico Studies was created in 1995 in response to UTD’s recognition of the richness of the Mexican-American relationship and history, as well as the importance of Mexico to the United States. The center strives to enhance the academic relationship between UTD and Mexico via international education, research and public service programs. Goals of the center are to provide curricula and exchange of faculty and students with Mexican universities, to conduct research and present lectures on issues of interest to both Mexico and the U.S. and to prepare individuals for leadership on critical business, political, scientific, technological and cultural issues of concern to both countries.

About UTD

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.