UTD’s Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies Resumes Its Educational Lecture Series With a Twist

RICHARDSON, Texas (Aug. 24, 2005) — The Center for U.S.–Mexico Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) has resumed its popular lecture series about topics of interest to both the United States and Mexico, but with a twist. This academic year, lectures are taking place both on the UTD campus and in Guanajuato, Mexico.

UTD has enjoyed a collaborative relationship and scholarly exchange with several Mexican institutions of higher education for the last 10 years.

Now in its fifth year, the lecture series offers varying perspectives about arts and technology, public administration, mathematics and physics, science education, Mexican political decentralization and 20th-century Mexican classical and chamber music.

The lectures are free and open to the public and conclude with a question-and-answer session. Questions about the times and precise locations of the lectures, as well as other matters related to the talks, should be directed to Gabriela Carrera at 972-883-6401, or visit the center’s website at http://www.utdallas.edu/research/cusms/ls.htm.

The first of the lectures was held on Aug. 12, when Dr. Thomas Linehan, co-director of UTD’s Interactive Institute of Arts and Engineering, and Pablo Trinidad spoke at the Mexican Research Center for Mathematics (CIMAT) in Guanajuato, Mexico about Computerized Animation: A Mathematical Perspective.

The schedule for the rest of the series is as follows:

• Dr. Larry D. Terry and Stephanie Newbold will speak Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week (Aug. 25-27) at the Law and Public Administration School at the University of Guanajuato on the subject of The Case for Bureaucracy: A Comparative, Constitutional Approach. The lecture is being co-sponsored, along with the center, by the American Embassy in Mexico. Terry is executive vice provost, interim vice president for business affairs and a professor of public administration at UTD. He is an author, editor of the prestigious scholarly journal Public Administration Review and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Newbold previously worked for the Office of the White House Chief of Staff in the Clinton administration and for the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. She currently is completing her dissertation and working for the Institute for Policy Outreach at Virginia Tech.

• Dr. Adolfo Sánchez Valenzuela will give a lecture entitled Lie Superalgebras and Natural Super-Spacetimes on Oct. 20 from 2 to 3 p.m. in Room 2.803 in UTD’s School of Management Building. His appearance will be co-sponsored, along with the center, by UTD’s School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Valenzuela is dean of the graduate school at CIMAT and director of the School of Mathematics at the University of Guanajuato. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and has been a member of several distinguished scientific committees at the Mexican Council of Science and Technology, known as CONACYT. His fields of interest include super manifold theory and super symmetry.

• Dr. Paul Ching-Wu Chu will give a lecture on Nov. 17 at CIMAT in Guanajuato. Chu is a professor of physics, holds the T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science and is the executive director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity, all at the University of Houston. His research areas include superconductivity, magnetism and dielectrics. He has served as a consultant or visiting staff member at Bell Labs, Los Alamos National Lab, the Marshall Space Flight Center, Argonne National Laboratories and DuPont. Chu is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1990, Chu was selected “Best Researcher in the United States” by U.S. News & World Report.

• Dr. Douglas Watson will speak Nov. 11 at the Law and Public Administration School at the University of Guanajuato, and his topic will be The Importance of Professional Management in Local Government. Watson is a professor of public affairs and head of the undergraduate and graduate programs in public affairs at UTD. He teaches courses in human resource management, economic development, organization theory and local government management. A former city manager, Watson serves or has served on the editorial board of five peer-reviewed journals. He also is the author, co-author or editor of several books about local government.

• Dr. Russell Hulse will speak on March 10 at the University of Guanajuato on Science, Nobel Prize to the Neighbors. His lecture is being co-sponsored, along with the center, by UTD’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Education. Hulse is a visiting professor of physics and is involved in the Science and Mathematics Education program at UTD. He also is a principal research physicist and Distinguished Research Fellow at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory. In 1993, Hulse received the Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the first binary pulsar in 1974.

• Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, who has served as governor of the State of Guanajuato since 2000, will give a lecture on Decentralization and Democracy in Mexico: The Case of Guanajuato, on March 24 from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 2.902 of UTD’s School of Management building. Romero Hicks’ lecture is co-sponsored by, along with the center, UTD’s School of Social Sciences. Romero Hicks previously was rector (president) of the University of Guanajuato and is a long-time proponent of higher education throughout Mexico.

• And in a departure from the normal fare of the lecture series, Ana Cervantes and Tiempos Pasados will give a performance titled Murmurs and Celebration & Medieval, Renascent, Sefardic and Early Colonial Music on March 25, at 8 p.m., at the UTD Conference Center. The event is being co-sponsored by UTD’s School of Arts and Humanities. Cervantes, a classical pianist, served on the adjunct music faculty of Princeton University, on the artist faculty at Rider University’s Westminster Conservatory and on the fine arts faculty of The Peddie School in New Jersey. She maintains an extensive concert and teaching schedule and is based in Guanajuato, where she teaches chamber music and collaborates in academic and musical projects at the University of Guanajuato. Tiempos Pasados acts as a cultural ambassador of the University of Guanajuato through the School of Music. The ensemble, directed by Armando López Valdivia, has performed in many venues, both in Mexico and abroad, and has recorded six albums.

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 website at www.utdallas.edu.