Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies

U.S-Mexico Lecture Series 2006-2007

The Center for U.S. - Mexico Studies cordially invites you to its Lecture Series 2006 - 2007. This year's series will highlight various perspectives on nanotechnology, geospatial science, geometry, Mexican reproductive behavior, and Mexican poetry and fiction.

The Center for U.S. - Mexico Studies, seeking to foster greater understanding between our two nations, is pleased to host and promote lectures on issues of interest to both Mexico and the U.S. Previous lectures have included such issues as the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), analysis of domestic politics and foreign policy, issues in science and technology, transborder population, and cultural development in both countries. The Center has hosted Carlos Fuentes, Andrés Oppenheimer, Elena Poniatowska, Ana María Salazar, Mónica Verea, Peter M. Ward, Victoria Rodríguez, Adolfo Aguilar Zínser, Jacqueline Peschard, Arexi Urrutia, Mario Moises Alvarez, Adolfo Sanchez, Thomas Linehan, Larry D. Terry, Stephanie Newbold, Paul Ching-Wu Chu, Douglas Watson, and Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, among others, under the frame of this series.

Anvar Zakhidov, Brian J.L. Berry, Jose Carlos Gomez Larranaga, Juan Guillermo Figueroa Perea, and C.M. Mayo are scheduled in this academic year. The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) students, faculty and staff, and those interested in U.S. - Mexico affairs from The University of Texas System (UT), from the metropolitan area of Dallas - Fort Worth, Institute of Physics of the University of Guanajuato, and the National Polytechnic Institute will benefit from the experience and expertise shared by these scholars.

If you have questions or need further information, please contact Naida Rodriguez, U.S.-Mexico Lecture Series Coordinator.

We look forward to seeing you in this series.

Anvar Zakhidov
Institute of Physics, University of Guanajuato
10:00 a.m., September 19, 2006, Leon, Guanajuato. Mexico

Drye-Spun Carbon Nanotube Sheets and Yarns for Energy Harvesting, Lighting and Field Emission Applications. Co-authored with S. Lee, C. Williams, R. Ulbricht, M. Zhang, S. Fang, R.H. Baughman (UTD).
Co-sponsored by the Institute of Physics, University of Guanajuato, Mexico

Dr. Anvar Zakhidov graduated "cum laude" (with distinction) from Tashkent Technical University ( Uzbekistan, USSR) in 1975, obtained his M.S. in 1977 and Ph.D. in Physics (Optics) from Institute of Spectroscopy of USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow in 1981. He spent five years in Japan ( Okazaki, Kyoto and Osaka) as Visiting Professor (1990-1995), and a year in Italy ( Bologna) at the Institute of Molecular Spectroscopy. From 1996 March until July 2000 he was a Senior Principal Scientist working with advanced materials at Honeywell Inc. (formerly AlliedSignal).
He is currently Institute Professor of Physics and Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at the university of Texas at Dallas. His "Nanophysics for Devices" research group of 4 Ph.D. researchers and 9 students (7 grad, 2 undergrad) is actively involved in broad investigations of physical properties of advanced nanomaterials: carbon nanotubes, photonic crystals, organic and hybrid multilayers. They study electrical, thermal, optical, magnetic, photonic, MW, structural, etc. properties in wide temperature range from 2 K to 500 K, using state of art equipment: SQUID, PPMS,ESR, Raman, etc. with the aim to design and create novel types of electronic and photonic devices.

Brian J.L. Berry
Mexican National Polytechnic Institute
11:00 a.m., September 28, 2006, Mexico City

The Emergence of Geospatial Science
Co-sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and the Mexican National Polytechnic Institute

Brian J.L. Berry is Lloyd Viel Berkner Regental Professor. He received his B.Sc. (Economics) degree at University College, London in 1955, the M.A. in geography from the University of Washington in 1956 and the Ph.D. in 1958. He was a chaired professor at the University of Chicago (1958-1976) and at Harvard (1976-1981), followed by a period as dean of the Heinz School of Public Policy at Carnegie-Mellon University (1981-1986), joining UTD in 1986. In the 1960s his urban and regional research sparked geography's social-scientific revolution and made him the most-cited geographer for more than 25 years. Subsequently, his inquiries have focused on long-wave dynamics and their relationships to macrohistorical phasing of economic development and political behavior. The author of more than 500 books and articles, he has attempted to bridge theory and practice via involvement in urban and regional development activities in both advanced and developing countries. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975, is a fellow of the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, AAAS and University College, London. He received the Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society in 1988. In 1999 he became the first geographer and one of the few social scientists ever to serve as a member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences and in 2004 he was one of the founding members of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST). In 2005 Dr. Berry was the recipient of the Vautrin Lud Prize, the highest award that can be bestowed on a geographer and modeled after the Nobel Prize, which does not have a category for geography.

Alberto Herrera-Gomez
The University of Texas at Dallas, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science 2.302
9:00 a.m., October 10, 2006, Richardson, TX. U.S.

Electrons and photons in solids
Co-sponsored by the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Alberto Herrera-Gomez is Professor at the Mexican Research Center for Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), Queretaro, Mexico and currently expending a Sabbatical at UTD as Visiting Associate Professor, and is Past President of the SMCTSM (Vacuum and Surface Science Society from Mexico). He received his B.S. in Physics from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (Mexico) in 1985, a M.S. in Physics from Cinvestav in 1988, a M.S. in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1993, and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University in 1994. His professional interest ranges from the study of nanofilms to Materials Science applied to food stuff. From his contributions in the latter field, he was granted the 2000 National Food Science Award (Mexico). He is currently involved in the field of photoemission.

Jose Carlos Gomez Larranaga
The University of Texas at Dallas, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science 4.910
11:00 a.m., November 14, 2006, Richardson, TX. U. S.

A Non-Technical Explanation of Poincare Conjecture: A Millennium Prize Problem
Co-sponsored by the Mexican Research Center for Mathematics (CIMAT) and the UTD School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Dr. Jose Carlos Gomez Larranaga is General Director of the Research Center for Mathematics of the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CIMAT). Under his direction, the center has concentrated its efforts in organizing several national meetings with the Mexican Society of Mathematics as well as joint meetings with the American Society of Mathematics. Dr. Gomez Larranaga holds a B.A. in Actuarial Sciences and M.S. in Mathematic Sciences from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, England. He has taught at CIMAT, Institute of Mathematics of the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and was a visiting professor in Ruhr- Universitat, in Bochum, Germany.

Among his most recent publications are: 3-Manifolds that are covered by two open bundles, coauthored with F.J. Gonzalez and W. Heil in Boletín de la Sociedad Matemática Mexicana (2004), Seifert unions of solid tori in Math Z. 240 (2002) and Seifert unions and spaces of graphs in S3 coauthored with W. Heil in J. Knot Theory Ramifications 11 (2002). Dr. Gomez Larranaga has participated in international conferences such as: The 3rd Reunion Japan-Mexico Joint Meeting on Topology and its Applications in Oaxaca, Mexico; Geometric Topology, in Xian, China and Lusternick - Schnirelmann Category in the New Millenium in South Hadley, Massachussets, USA.

Dr. Gomez Larranaga was the Secretary of the Institute of Mathematics of the National University of Mexico and the President of the Mexican Society of Mathematics. Under Dr. Gomez Larranaga's leadership, CIMAT has consolidated its internationalization, collaborating with institutions of great academic prestige such as University of Berlin, Rice University, University of Texas at Dallas, and Florida State University, among others. Dr. Gomez Larranaga is member of the Research Advisory Board of the Vice-Presidency for Research and Graduate Studies of the University of Texas at Dallas.

Juan Guillermo Figueroa-Perea
The University of Texas at Dallas, Conference Center 1.102
1:00 p.m., February 27, 2007, Richardson, TX. U.S.

The exercise of the reproductive rights in the recent Mexican experience.
Co-sponsored by the UTD School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences

Professor and researcher at El Colegio de México; MA and PhD in Sociology and in Social Demography. Juan Guillermo has edited eight books in areas related to reproductive behavior, health, and sexuality. The English titles of these books are: The Regulation of the Fertility in Mexico (1993); Ethics and Reproductive Health (1996); The Condition of the Women in the Space of the Health (1998); Elements for an Ethical Analysis in the Reproduction (2001); Reproductive Health: Public Policies, Normative Frames and Social Actors (2001); Sexuality and Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges for Research (2001); Ethics, Religion, and Reproduction: Notes for a Discussion (2002); and To be a Father, Husband, and Son: Practices and Valorizations of Some Mexican Males (2006).

C.M. Mayo - Program cancelled. For more information contact the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies.
The University of Texas at Dallas, School of Management Room 2.802
6:00 p.m., March 13, 2007, Richardson, TX. U.S.

Mexico: A traveler's Literary Companion.
Co-sponsored by the UTD Center for Translation Studies of the School of Arts and Humanities

C.M. Mayo is the author of the widely-lauded travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California , the Other Mexico, and Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Founding editor of Tameme, the bilingual Spanish/English) chapbook press, Mayo is also a translator of contemporary Mexican poetry and fiction. Her anthology of Mexican fiction in translation, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion, was published by Whereabouts Press in March 2006. Other awards include three Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards and two Washington Independent Writers Awards as well as residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Yaddo, and (for Sky Over El Nido) fellowships from the writers conferences at Bread Loaf, Sewanee, and Wesleyan. An El Paso , Texas native raised in Northern California and a long-time resident of Mexico City , Mayo currently divides her time between Mexico City and Washington DC , where she teaches at The Writers Center. She is at work on a novel set in 19th century Mexico, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire. Her website is www.cmmayo.com

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