By Julieta González

In keeping with a long established tradition, The University of Arizona, partnering with Mexican universities, has initiated a new program to provide training, internships, exchanges and scholarships (TIES) to faculty and students in Mexico and the United States.

The partnerships augment the efforts of several campus colleges and departments, including the College of Pharmacy, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Environmental Research Laboratories the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering.

If the TIES goals are met, ultimately, Mexico’s infrastructure will be strengthened. Additionally, that country’s emerging professionals and academics will have access to the latest technology available to help solve some of Mexico’s major problems. All principal investigators at the UA agree that the benefits to the University and to the United States are equally significant.

The current TIES program resulted from meetings between Mexican President Vicente Fox and President George W. Bush shortly after the latter’s first term began. The UA is part of the first round of funding over a period of five years.

TIES is administered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation and Development (ALO). The ALO is an agency that funds programs to increase links between universities in the United States and universities overseas. Among the program’s goals are to provide graduate students from Mexico the opportunity to complete graduate studies in the United States. Students may conduct research in both countries.

Jay Gandolfi, assistant dean for pharmacy research and graduate affairs in the College of Pharmacy, and his colleagues developed their TIES proposal based upon their existing “Super Fund” project. The TIES program helps support the Mexican students at the UA and UA faculty teaching courses in Mexico for professionals and students. His college is affiliated with nine institutes in Mexico at key universities presently involved in environmental studies or environmental toxicology.

The research, notes Gandolfi, benefits not just the UA but the nation a a whole. “Pollutants know no boundaries,” says Gandolfi. “Our geography is comparable and we’ve got common border problems brought about by manufacturing, mining and engineering by-products. If Mexico has an air pollution problem, we have an air pollution problem. If Mexico has a water quality problem, we have a water quality problem. If they have dust problems from mine tailings, we’ve got dust problems from the mine tailings.”

Similarly, the Zuckerman College of Public Health and “El Colegio de Sonora (COLSON) are working collaboratively to address the complex economic, social, educational and developmental issues facing the public health work forces in the border regions of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora. Douglas Taren, associate professor in public health and health promotion sciences, says that both institutions will benefit from research projects along the border. “Public health officials on both sides of the border need to cooperate quickly in cases of border emergencies such as toxic spills. Professionals need to communicate and cooperate with each other at all levels quickly. This is a continued opportunity for all to benefit from common knowledge and experiences.”

Donald Slack, head of agricultural and biosystems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, says that the TIES program and the research associated with it will benefit the UA’s educational mission as much as it will Mexico’s needs. Graduate student research reflects his and his faculty’s philosophy. “We don’t use our graduate students to do our research. We use our research to provide education for the graduate students.”

Slack’s department is presently cooperating with Chapingo Autonomous University, which is located about 30 miles north of Mexico City. “Our department has had a long-standing relationship with Chapingo,” says Slack. Chapingo is a national university for agriculture. Slack and his department has been collaborating with that university since the early 1990s.

Slack tells of a graduate student from Chapingo who came to the UA to work on a doctorate. As a result, the head of the irrigation department at Chapingo invited Slack to that campus in 1992 and Slack began participating in short courses, which he continues to do. “Meantime,” says Slack, the head of the irrigation and engineering department there came to the UA and got his doctorate degree in our department. He returned to his home campus and within a few years, he was named head of the university.

The TIES program, however, has provided much- needed support for additional graduate students from Mexico. “I’m excited about the program,” says Slack. “The idea is to train people at the master’s level who can go back and work and make an economic impact on Mexico.”

The agricultural and biosystems engineering portion of the TIES program has brought students here who will actually complete a major portion of their thesis work in Mexico where they will have a research adviser.

One of those advisers is Waldo Bustamante, who works in the Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua (Mexican Institute for Water Resources). Bustamante, says that while there are common fields for research, “we need a lot of help.” For example, he emphasizes that in Mexico he performs many tasks. “I do research, I teach, I work with irrigation scheduling. The institute I work for has a national focus, but in reality, we are three countries.”

Northern Mexico gets little rain, yet is a major agricultural and ranching hub. Central Mexico, he says, has a lot of people with a lot of problems. Near the densely populated city of Guadalajara, for example, sits Lake Chapala, which is drying up. To the south, most people make their living from the sea.

“We have to deal with climate abnormalities and the problems that they create for farmers,” says Bustamante. We don’t have Hoover Dam-like structures to harvest water from snow run-off. Our country is much more dependent on the weather.” What Bustamante and his agency are trying to do is to encourage Mexican farmers to conserve water.

One of the studies he’s conducting is near Caborca, Sonora. Bustamante says that the ground water level is sinking by as much as one meter per year. He has recommend that they close some of the pumping wells build green houses to maintain a level that’s sustainable. Without farming, it’s hard to think about what people will do.”

Bustamante, who has co-authored papers with Slack, also teaches at Chapingo and is supervising four TIES master’s thesis students for their research component in Mexico.

TIES research projects vary greatly. Student Pedro Romero is working on a natural ventilation system that would help lower the costs of operating greenhouses in Mexico. Teodulo Domenesque is working on plowing bio-solids into fields after removing their pathogens. Armando Barreto is researching the use of remote sensing in geographic information systems for the management of irrigation districts in Mexico. Intern Freddy Rojas Serrano from Guanajuato is developing a software program for the calculation of water flow and distribution through dams and aqueducts.

The UA’s Environmental Research Laboratory (ERL) has had long-standing research projects with Mexico including the cultivation and harvesting of halophytes for use as a source of food and energy.

Meeting the increasing American appetite for shrimp is the focus of a portion of the TIES program’s involving the ERL. Kevin Fitzsimmons, research scientist with the ERL discussed the growing popularity of shrimp in the United States. “Shrimp consumption in our country has recently passed salmon as the favorite seafood. We consume about four pounds of shrimp per person per year. And, with recent health studies showing that it’s high in the good cholesterol, that figure will probably rise.”

Part of the ERL’s research with the TIES program is to help Mexican shrimp farmers become more sustainable and at the same time have a better product for consumers in the United States. “Mexico’s economy will benefit and we have a higher safety factor in the food product we’re bringing to our tables,” says Fitzsimmons. Farmed shrimp accounts for half of the shrimp exported from Mexico.

Through the TIES program, the growing demands of the seafood market are being met in the United States while providing income to farmers in Mexico.

According to Fitzsimmons, tilapia is a growing industry among producers in major agri-business enterprises seeking to diversify. “They can put a fish operation in and use their well water first for the aquaculture operation and then use that water to irrigate whatever existing field crop. They’ve got a double use of that water, and then take the waste from the fish and use that as fertilizer.” He says that the markets for tilapia are expanding in Mexico as well as in the United States. “It’s all been farm raised in good, clean water. COSTCO sells it like crazy and farmers in Arizona sell it live to oriental food restaurants. It’s become very popular in many chain restaurants such as Red Lobster, Ruby Tuesday and TGIF. It’s a growing industry by leaps and bounds,” says Fitzsimmons.

Pablo González-Alanis, a graduate student in soil, water and environmental science who works with ERL, is focused in his studies on aquaculture. He completed his master’s work at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada. While there, he worked on a project with the Canadian Development Agency on salmon farming, specifically on sea lice, active parasites that damage the quality of the fish and can be devastating to the industry. At the UA, González-Alanis is involved both with shrimp and tilapia.

González-Alanis is on the faculty of the University of Tamaulipas and is collaborating with the UA on a bio-filtration project. “We’re testing a bio-filter that goes inside the tank or the pond to remove the bacteria and ammonia products and other toxic organisms that can harm the shrimp.” He adds that this project is very important because there aren’t enough shrimp in the wild to satisfy the needs of the marketplace.

The University of Tamaulipas has developed a master’s program in aquaculture focused on shrimp, catfish, tilapia and crayfish. Engineers at the institution are developing closed water systems to help keep diseases away from shrimp larvae and keep them healthy for the marketplace. “This is a growing industry with great revenue and financial potential from exporting shrimp to the United States,” says González-Alanis.

González-Alanis is also the project coordinator for master’s level students conducting research on water quality in agriculture, shrimp pathology, the economics of aquaculture and in microbiology.

Fitzsimmons, a long-time visitor to Mexico, also studied for a summer in Guaymas at the Tecnológico de Monterrey campus in that community. He teaches a marine algae class at the UA and takes his students on weekend field trips to Guaymas. Fitzsimmons has also expanded the TIES affiliation with ERL to include an educational exchange and research program with the Autonomous University in Tabasco, located in southeastern Mexico in the coastal state of Tabasco on the Gulf of Mexico. “The idea is to have a broader presence in Mexico,” says Fitzsimmons.

While TIES researchers are often focused on a single problem related to their thesis or dissertation work, the overall approach is inter-disciplinary. Such is the case with the TIES program that grew out of Gandolfi’s “Super Fund” outreach efforts. “When you tackle an environmental problem,” says Gandolfi, “you can’t just tackle it from the view of a health scientist. You have to tackle it also from an environmental scientist’s view and from the view of an epidemiologist as well as that of a chemist.” Gandolfi’s research colleagues include toxicologists, molecular biologists, geneticists, developmental toxicologists along with chemical engineers, environmental engineers, microbiologists and hydrologists.

One of the Mexican students is presently working in the Cienega Creek area, just south and east of Tucson. He is developing new methods for the use of plants to retain metals at a mining site so that the tailings don’t leach or blow away. “That’s a lot easier than taking a big dump truck and taking the tailings away and then dumping them into the ground,” says Gandolfi. This “bio-remediation” approach is to let nature control the problem. But what happens when nature is part of the problem?

An example is the level of arsenic in the water along the Arizona-Mexico border. “Arsenic is naturally occurring in the earth’s crust,” says Gandolfi. “Arsenic follows gold, arsenic follows silver and it follows copper.” Gandolfi emphasizes the need for continued bi-national research on the subject. “Presently,” he points out, “the safety level of arsenic in our water is set by a study undertaken in Taiwan. One of the largest areas affected by arsenic in the United States is the Southwest. How much of the population here is Taiwanese?”

“We need to develop studies that examine a major population here that has been exposed to arsenic and determine whether they are susceptible and at risk,” says Gandolfi.

According to Gandolfi, it’s logical to work with Mexico on issues of this sort. “We need and have established relationships with comparable scientists on both sides of the border to tackle problems that don’t know boundaries. Our problems in the United States pale in comparison to Mexico’s. That’s an unsaid understanding. If we can learn from theirs, then we can apply what we learn to ours.”

Gandolfi’s commitment to education goes beyond the research opportunities presented by the TIES program and other exchanges. “Many of my colleagues and I are all ‘sixtyish’ and older. We won’t be around in another 10 years or so. We hope to train the next generation to handle the continuing and future problems. It takes years to train a professional and just as many to build a trust factor. I can’t be more emphatic about developing mutual appreciation and trust. This has been absolutely critical for us to be able to move forward in Mexico,” says Gandolfi.

As Gandolfi’s colleagues have traveled to Mexico to teach short courses and workshops both at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico as well as in Ensenada, Baja Calif. “In reality, a lot of people don’t speak English, so we’ve developed and placed an environmental toxicology text on the Web in Spanish. It gets 90,000 hits per month.”

During the 20 years that The University of Arizona has been involved in contributing to public health and health services along the United State-Mexico border, leaders of the efforts in both countries have learned to overcome some of the stumbling blocks to bi-national cooperation. Catalina Denman, president of the Colegio de Sonora (COLSON), says that one of the initial barriers has been language. Others deal with cultural differences.

The cross-border partners conducted extensive research on some of these barriers to working together and published “The Essential Elements of Binational Collaboration,” a handbook for people who are working in the arena of public health.

Jill de Zapien, associate dean for the UA’s Zuckerman College of Public Health, says that “the tricky part about all of these programs is the binational part of it. With the TIES program and others, it’s all about building the relationship with our counterparts and to find that common agenda.”

A successful foundation between the UA and COLSON continues with the support and institutional framework of the Health Services Committee and the Education Committee of the Arizona-Mexico Border Commission.

Taren says that one of the most important programs for the Zuckerman College of Public Health involves “promotoras,” peer health educators and advocates for community members within the health care system. "We’re presently involved in leadership training for promotoras along both sides of the border because advocacy is very important.”

“We know that there are still a lot of barriers and challenges to the exchange programs,” says de Zapien.

Taren says that better health is one of the most vital issues in relationships between countries. “Improving the health infrastructures along the border improves our own homeland security.”

Other participants in the Mexico TIES program agree, but Slack summed it up succinctly. “My hope,” says Slack “is that part of the process of having Mexican students here, working with Mexican and with UA faculty advisers, is that we will foster collaborative research that will far outlive this project. In addition to the education that the Mexican students are receiving, we are forging relationships that will outlast me, long after I’m gone.”

Most of the master’s level students presently enrolled in the UA through the TIES program are slated to complete their studies in December 2005.