In order to promote processes that shape the region’s development and to be faithful to Zamorano’s mission to educate and form leaders and agents of change, Zamorano encourages its students to engage in applied research for their graduation projects. Guided by expert professors in the different areas of agricultural science, every fourth year student must develop a thesis project on a wide variety of subjects, and often they carry out new research targeted at resolving problems or issues in their area of specialization – agriculture, agrifood science, agribusiness, socioeconomic development or environmental management.
Zamorano’s research agenda is global. Every year more than 200 research projects are produced. “Our students seek to resolve agricultural problems that range from techniques for improving the productivity of beef and dairy cattle to improved practices for the industrial processing of agrifood products. Other theses have involved the generation and dissemination of environmentally friendly biological products for pest control, as well as studies of the potential of plants in the region to produce biofuels,” stated Ms. Carla Henríquez, Zamorano’s Educational Support Chief.
The research is carried out together with the private sector, other universities and research centers in the Americas and Europe. Many of the research projects produce innovation inside Zamorano as they are incorporated into its educational, production and marketing programs. In addition this innovation is transferred to other institutions and agribusinesses in the region. Zamorano’s scientific capacity to generate technologies that increase the competitiveness of the region’s agroindustry is internationally recognized.
Professors committed to science
Zamorano is proud that its faculty includes internationally renowned scientists that promote and advise the development of the research projects carried out by fourth year students.
In 2010, six professors from Zamorano’s Food Agroindustry career participated in the Congress of Food Technologies held by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago, Illinois. IFT is the largest association of food technologists in the US, and scientists from the most important universities in the field attend the congress.
“Zamorano has participated in this event since 2005, and this year it was the university that presented the largest number of research projects,” said Dr. Luis Osorio, director of the Food Agroindustry career.
The participation of Zamorano professors in this kind of congress is the result of the career’s initiative to update knowledge in order to improve the education of the students in the classrooms, plants and laboratories. In addition, Zamorano positions itself in the international food industry as a provider of scientific contributions through the research carried out by students with the support of professors that are committed to science.
