Heidelberg Center for Latin American Celebrates Ten Years
21 September 2012
The Heidelberg Center for Latin America (HCLA), the postgraduate study and advanced training centre of Heidelberg University in Santiago de Chile and DAAD-funded centre of excellence in research and teaching, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. A ceremony to mark the occasion will be held on 30 September 2012 at the Latin American satellite campus of Ruperto Carola in Santiago. In addition to representatives of HCLA partner institutions and numerous guests from science, business and politics, the Federal Minister for Education and Research, Prof. Dr. Annette Schavan, the Minister for Science, Research and the Arts of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Theresia Bauer, the President of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Prof. Dr. Margret Wintermantel, and the Minister of Education of the Republic of Chile, Dr. Harald Beyer, will also participate.
Since 2002, the Heidelberg Center for Latin America has been working on developing, exporting and running programmes of study and advanced training in cooperation with the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile and the Universidad de Chile. Target countries besides Chile include Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay and Colombia. “The HCLA established Heidelberg University early on in this education market as the first and still the only graduate centre of a German university in Latin America,” emphasises Prof. Dr. Bernhard Eitel, Rector of Ruperto Carola. In addition to offering courses, the HCLA coordinates all the activities of the university in Latin America and provides a platform for scientific cooperation.
Initially funded by the State of Baden-Württemberg, the HCLA has been growing as a centre of excellence in research and teaching with the support of the Germany Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) since 2009. The German Foreign Office is providing it with approximately 2.1 million euros in funding over a period of five years. The centre of excellence, which officially opened in 2010, is tasked with directing master and PhD programmes in astronomy, the geosciences, medical informatics and medical physics in cooperation with its partner universities. Additionally, it aims to build up networks between outstanding scientists and scholars from Latin America as well as Latin American cutting-edge research and research in Germany.
The rector of Heidelberg University will open the ceremony to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Heidelberg Center for Latin America. After a welcome speech by Federal Minister Schavan, Chilean Minister of Education Beyer, Baden-Württemberg Science Minister Bauer and DAAD President Wintermantel will address the audience. Prof. Dr. Rosa Devés, Vice Rector of the Universidad de Chile, and Prof. Dr. Guillermo Marshall, Vice Rector of the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile, will also speak. Heidelberg jurist Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Wolfrum, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, will also be honoured during the ceremony. The director of the Heidelberg Center for Latin America, Dr. Walter Eckel, will appoint Prof. Wolfrum Honorary Director of the HCLA’s Master of International Law programme.
The ceremony will also mark the official opening of a new Heidelberg University guest house in Santiago de Chile. The “Heidelberg House” offers 20 modern furnished apartments for visiting scholars, scientists and guests of the HCLA.
For more information on the Heidelberg Center for Latin American and the Heidelberg House, see http://www.heidelberg-center.uni-hd.de/english and www.heidelberghaus.cl
Contact:
Dr. Walter Eckel
Heidelberg Center for Latin America
walter.eckel@heidelbergcenter.cl
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phone: +49 6221 54-2311
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