UC Santa Cruz leaders last week formally recognized the university’s burgeoning relationship with the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) through the signing of a memorandum of understanding. The agreement highlights a commitment by both institutions to develop cooperative research and cultural initiatives, and faculty and student exchanges.
Chancellor Cynthia Larive, Vice Chancellor for Research John MacMillan, and Assistant Vice Provost of Global Engagement Becky George traveled to UABC’s Tijuana campus March 24 for the signing. University President Luis Enrique Palafox Maestre, Vice Rector of the Tijuana campus Haydeé Gómez Llanos Juárez, and General Coordinator of Academic Cooperation Martha Ofelia Lobo Rodríguez were among the contingent of UABC officials who took part in the signing. Christopher Teal, the U.S. Consul in Tijuana, and Luis Gilberto Gallego Cortez, Secretary of Education of Baja California, also attended.
UCSC and UABC share research expertise in a host of areas including climate resilience, marine biodiversity, coastal sustainability, agriculture, global and community health, and biomolecular and biomedical engineering.
“There is much that we can learn from each other through research collaborations and faculty and student exchanges,” Larive said. “Problems are solved when people work together and embrace different perspectives and experiences, and students are enriched when they are exposed to new cultures and points of view. I am excited to see what the future holds for our partnership.”
Palafox Maestre praised the quality of research coming out of UC Santa Cruz and predicted a fruitful collaboration that will extend into multiple fields.
The partnership between the universities has evolved rapidly over the past 16 months. In November 2023, the UABC president led a delegation to Santa Cruz, meeting with campus leadership and faculty to explore areas of mutual interest and potential collaboration. Following that visit, MacMillan last May led a group of 11 UC Santa Cruz faculty members to UABC’s Ensenada campus for a joint faculty symposium. In November, a UABC delegation of 10 faculty visited UC Santa Cruz to further explore joint research opportunities.
The faculty visits have already resulted in positive outcomes. UC Alianza MX is a systemwide initiative of the University of California that supports engagement with Mexico by members of the UC community across all 10 campuses, providing funding and logistical support for research collaborations and academic mobility. In the most recent UC Alianza MX - UABC Joint Research Call, two of the three joint-research projects selected for funding have UC principal investigators from UC Santa Cruz and UABC leads who were part of the November delegation that visited UC Santa Cruz. The projects are:
Mapping Energy Poverty Through Interactive Media
- UC Principal Investigators: Professor Magy Seif El-Nasr and Dr. Elin Carstensdottir, Department of Computational Media, UC Santa Cruz
- UABC Principal Investigators: Dr. Karen Estrella Martínez Torres and Dr. Marcos Eduardo González Trevizo, Engineering, Architecture, and Design
Developing a Long-Term Social-Ecological Monitoring Program to Enhance the Resilience of the Coasts of Baja California, Mexico
- UC Principal Investigators: Dr. Mark Carr, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, UCSC, and Dr. Kyle Cavanaugh, Department of Geography, UCLA
- UABC Principal Investigators: Dr. Luis Malpica Cruz, Institute of Oceanological Research, and Dr. José Alberto Zepeda Domínguez, Faculty of Marine Sciences
UC Santa Cruz’s visit to UABC’s Tijuana campus — the institution also has campuses in Ensenada and Mexicali — aligns with broader efforts within the University of California system to strengthen ties with Mexican institutions of higher learning. UC Santa Cruz was recognized for its own internationalization efforts in 2023 when it was selected to receive the prestigious 2024 Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization from NAFSA: Association of International Educators. UC Santa Cruz’s Division of Global Engagement was established in 2016 to amplify the campus’ international efforts. University leaders adopted a Strategic Plan for Internationalization during the 2021-22 academic year. A goal of the plan is to foster partnerships to create or expand international collaborations.
Watch a video recap of the visit produced by UABC on UABC’s Facebook page.
