Deyler Castilla Caballero, a PhD student of Engineering at Universidad del Valle, is part of the select group of Colombians, including the President of our country, Juan Manuel Santos, to be one of the Fulbright Fellows. This way, the relations of academic and investigative cooperation between Colombia and the United States are strengthened and maintained.
The Fulbright Scholarship Program is an international educational exchange program sponsored by the United States Government, that has benefited more than 370,000 people who have been chosen for their academic and professional merits. Its mission is to promote knowledge, scientific and research cooperation and development with an intercultural component through the advanced training of leaders with a high degree of social commitment. So it allows a mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and people of other countries.
The student of the Doctorate in Engineering with emphasis in Chemical Engineering, Deyler Rafael Castilla Caballero, was awarded a Colombian Doctoral Student Scholarship for 2017. Through which he will have the opportunity to do a doctoral internship.
According to Deyler, the Fulbright Scholarship Program "is a very relevant program on the strengthening of Colombian research capacity. It allows to encourage the profile of leaders, not only in the academic field but also in society. It also allows for the creation and strengthening of cooperation ties with people in very prestigious institutions, which means progress for our country. "
Fulbright scholarships are synonymous with worldwide academic and professional excellence: 57 Nobel Prizes, 82 Pulitzer Prizes, 6 Prince of Asturias awards and 33 heads of state, including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, have been Fulbright Fellows.
Regarding to research being advanced by the doctoral student Deyler, as part of his research project in the Doctorate in Engineering program, with the accompaniment of different teachers, comments "The research that I am developing is about the application of solar photocatalysis For the degradation of plastics in solid state, as an alternative of environmental decontamination. As a novel aspect, we plan to use residues of coconut husks (cocoa) and couple them in the photocatalysis process.
This work is very important, taking into account, for instance, that our country will be charging a tax for the use of plastic bags starting July 1, since this type of plastic materials are a huge problem for the preservation Of our ecosystem. The idea that we have with the use of the photocatalysis and the coconut cuescos is to evaluate a new alternative for the elaboration of attractive materials from the practical and environmental point of view, that degrade with the action of the sun.
I am very grateful to God for allowing me to work on such a project, since it is very new in our country and I do it hand in hand with high-quality teachers, such as Professors Fiderman Machuca and Juan Manuel Barraza de Univalle, and José A. Colina of the University of Cartagena, in Colombia; As well as Professor Sofía Vázquez (Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, Mexico) and Professor Aicardo Roa, University of Wisconsin-Madison.”
Approximately 80 Colombian professionals receive Fulbright scholarships each year to undertake postgraduate studies, conduct research, teach at universities and participate in other universities.
Since the beginning of this program in our country, 2,648 Colombians have been awarded scholarships for master's and doctoral studies, research and teaching activities in the United States. In the same way, 1,334 Americans have obtained scholarships to be linked to Colombian universities.
This time the great opportunity is for Deyler who will carry out his internship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is important to emphasize that, for the student to do an internship during the doctorate is key since it allows to expand the networks of knowledge between the institutions
"I hope that ties of cooperation are created between the University of Wisconsin and Univalle and the cooperation between the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon and Univalle will continue in force; In addition, I hope to perfect my skills as a researcher and show that in Colombia there are good people, committed to noble motives".
Regarding the process carried out at the Universidad del Valle, Deyler feels very grateful to his alma mater and says "The university has very capable people, both students and teachers. I have been very enriched with my postgraduate academic training, teaching assistance, the opportunity to present papers abroad, the fact of working with english courses, like the British Council and else”.
The Faculty of Engineering of Universidad del Valle encourages the effort and discipline of its undergraduate and graduate students. In this case, it congratulates and applauds the achievements of the PhD student in Engineering with emphasis in Chemical Engineering, Deyler Rafael Castilla Caballero who has taken the name of our institution very high.
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