Hernán Felipe Suárez Afanador, a student in the Master’s in Biology program at the Industrial University of Santander (UIS), participated in an international academic exchange at the Plant Ecophysiology Laboratory of the Federal Institute of Goiás, in Rio Verde, Brazil.
During his stay, the student worked under the tutelage of Professor Pablo Meneses Silva, PhD, recognized as one of the most prominent ecophysiologists in South America, with whom he developed research projects associated with minimum stomatal conductance and minimum hydraulic resistance, key processes for understanding the survival of plant species in the face of environmental changes.
The exchange was made possible thanks to the academic collaboration between the UIS and the Federal Institute of Goiás, led by the student’s thesis advisor, Professor Nelson Rodríguez López. In this regard, Hernán Felipe Suárez highlighted the importance of this experience for his academic training:
“I am very grateful for the opportunity given to me by the University and my thesis advisor, Professor Nelson Rodríguez López, who established the link with Professor Pablo Meneses so that I could carry out this stay in Brazil. It was an experience that allowed me to see first-hand how they work at the Plant Ecophysiology Laboratory and enrich my knowledge of techniques that I hope to contribute to the Industrial University of Santander.”
As the main achievement of the exchange, the student gained a deeper understanding of aspects of plant hydraulics, strengthening his understanding of how plants respond to changing environmental conditions, a fundamental field of study in the current context of climate change.
This experience reaffirms the UIS’s commitment to internationalization, scientific research, and the high-level training of its graduate students.
