Erandi Rodríguez-Pérez, PhD student at Geosciences Barcelona, attended the 9th CONACYT Scholars in Europe Symposium, an event organized by Maison Universitaire Franco Mexicane (MUFRAMEX) and the National Science and Technological Council from México (CONACYT). The researcher presented her work entitled ‘Paleoecology and paleoclimatic research: Records of the last millenia in Mexico’ on December 10.
The presentation “demonstrates the value of the palaeoecological research of the Quaternary era in general, and in Mexico in particular”, said Erandi Rodríguez-Pérez, who adds, “I also outlined in my presentation the importance of the climatic conditions to understand the rise, development and decline of big cities such as Teotihuacán or the Maya civilization. Besides, the researcher highlighted the usefulness of paleoecological records to study the relationship between the human society and its environment hundreds and thousands years ago.
Rodriguez-Pérez presentation was scheduled in the session ‘Climate change and energy transition’. The researcher highlighted in her presentation the importance of understanding the dynamics of the past climate systems to enhance the actions to combat the climate change.
According to Rodríguez-Pérez, “paleoecological research can be useful to implement the Adaptation Measures to Climate Change, which are key actions for the Earth’s future, although they haven’t been so analyzed as the Mitigation Measures”. “In Mexico, these type of measures are very important considering the country high biodiversity and the susceptibility to droughts and floods”, adds Rodríguez-Pérez.
The symposium was initially scheduled for last April 22 to 24 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, but, due to the Coronavirus restrictions, the organization postponed it to December 8, 9 and 10. During these three days, more than a hundred of young Mexican researchers, most of them PhD students, working in several European universities and research institutions gathered online to exchange their knowledge and explain their scientific work.
“I think these meetings are important because there are students who focus their research on different topics and from research centers from all over the European Union”, says Pérez-Rodríguez. In these sense, the researcher said that, although the meeting brings together researchers from different scientific disciplines with different theoretical approaches, "the majority of the research is aimed to contribute to the solution of a common problem".
The CONACyT Scholars Symposium in Europe is an annual scientific meeting organized since 2011 by MUFRAMEX. The programme of the event comprises round tables, individual presentations and idea labs. It is conceived as a meeting and networking point, allowing CONACYT scholars to test their hypotheses and thesis arguments before a French-Mexican scientific committee. Since 2011, 817 Mexican scholars from 249 European universities of 22 countries have participated in this event.