It will be the first time that a team from a national university will officially participate as part of the Chilean delegation that will attend the renowned international meeting on sustainability, which this year will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The excessive use of cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, fertilizers, pesticides and cleaning supplies are the main cause of water pollution worldwide, which directly affects health and the ecosystem. For this reason, research from the Institute of Natural Resources Chemistry of the University of Talca seeks to mitigate this problem that damages the environment.
This is a project that uses nanotechnology through photocatalysts that transform and degrade water pollution, which will be presented at the next COP29 (29th Conference of the Parties), which will take place between December 11 and 22. November in Baku, Azerbaijan, organized by the United Nations (UN).
“In this project we plan to design photocatalysts with a combination of microorganisms to treat contaminated water,” explained John Amalraj, in charge of the research and academic at said institute.
“What we hope from what is known as photocatalysis is to use a renewable source of energy, such as the sun, to mitigate the effect or environmental impact of certain pollutants,” explained Jackson Espinosa, member of the team and PhD student in Sciences. mention Research and Development of Bioactive Products from the Maulina study house.
The UTalca delegation will show these scientific advances to the audience as part of the pavilion that our country will present at the largest sustainability conference in the world, presenting its initiative on Tuesday, November 19, since that day, the COP will be held. focuses on the theme of water.
The student of the same doctorate and part of the team, Dailys Acosta, stressed the importance of seeking solutions to this global problem. “I would above all like to lay a foundation so that people understand that we must take action, that we must have a more proactive stance regarding what can be done to mitigate all the consequences that climate change can bring,” he expressed.
UTalca Ambassadors for Climate Change
For the first time, a national university delegation will participate in this international congress in which leaders from around the world meet to address climate change. The project was chosen among ten others from the same University, which participated in an unprecedented competition of the university that defined the team that would be presented at the COP.
The Director of Innovation and Transfer, Ariela Vergara, highlighted that the winning team proposed an innovative strategy, “which involves the use of synthetic nanoparticles that allow the capture of certain unwanted components in waters, particularly considering the water crisis that we face in this and the future. following years.”
This is an instance that positions the University of Talca in the big leagues of research and allows one of the study house’s research in the field of sustainability to be shown. While, for the attending team it means a unique experience.
“We are very happy and grateful, because representing the university worldwide is a great, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Furthermore, it is not only about sharing our ideas with others, we will hear about other initiatives as well, which helps a lot in the training of researchers,” stressed Professor John Amalraj.
“It was a surprise, because although I had faith that we had a project proposal that was solid and innovative, it is still a competition and the other participants have very strong proposals. It is truly a great joy to represent the University of Talca as an ambassador,” said Dailys Acosta.
For his part, doctoral student Jackson Espinosa added that, “I am very excited because it was something in which we had a lot of expectations. So it is in some way a validation of the effort behind the study and application of this type of projects. “We are going to give our best in this process.”
The Director of Innovation and Transfer added that this is an instance that “allows us to internationalize the work of the university, show the work we do and complement it with other initiatives regarding trends in other countries to work on climate change.” .
