A small initiative that began as a summer research opportunity for Mexican undergraduate and graduate students has grown beyond the wildest dreams of its founders.
The Dolphin (Delfin) Program—officially named the Inter-Institutional Program for Strengthening Research and Graduate Studies in the Pacific—started nearly 30 years ago in Sinaloa and Nayarit. Since then, it has introduced almost 100,000 young researchers to experienced scientists at universities around the world.
Students participating in the program spend seven weeks at a host institution, working on a research project of their choice under the guidance of a local faculty member.
Carolina Ortíz, a student at the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, joined the Dolphin Program this summer along with fellow student Paulina Blanco.
“We’re both starting our seventh semester and thinking about our theses,” Ortíz said. “We found a Delfin project at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (UAG) under ‘Ecotoxicology,’ which studies the effects of pollution on ecosystems. This appealed to me because I like projects that use living systems to tackle pollution issues.”
Blanco added, “I’m interested in organisms that tell us about the environment, as opposed to chemical or physical analyses.”
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