Ultraviolet radiation, with little budget for science and technology

Neurosurgeon Veracruz, Edgar Santos Martial, based in Germany, who recently received the appointment of Associate Professor (private lecturer) in Neurosurgery, at the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Heidelberg, was not accepted to the Faculty of Medicine in University of VeracruzFor several years, he tried to teach remotely and be a researcher.

“The business proposal that I personally submitted to the Director of the Medical School at the UV Veracruz campus is specific and broad, with measurable goals, and which aims to establish a laboratory like the one I run in Heidelberg, Germany,” he said.

He lamented that UV rays are not adopting strategies from countries like China, which employ professors from the best universities in the first world to get the flow of information and technology to their countries.

“UV is unaware of this strategy, and does not appreciate the potential of Mexicans abroad. I have offered to teach remotely, my main goal is to transmit the information I collect in Germany, to set up a laboratory and to transfer technology, but obviously the philosophy or the way of seeing things here is not that way, I understand that the budget I must develop for my research is equivalent to a one-year budget for college and I have access to UV resources and even then, I haven’t found a place.”

“I showed up with almost every medical school principal to offer my services, I offered myself a year and a half ago, the same with the current principal and nothing, they say UV is not ready for my profile, their argument,” he said.

He added that this lack of openness is due to a series of mistakes made in the past and that the role that the university should play has been underestimated, because among other things it has an essential function in creating science and technology, which is the base of development.

Despite everything, he is still willing to cooperate with UV.

“I do not have many demands, but I am offering to set up a factory in Veracruz and repeat what I have in Germany which has been awarded internationally,” he affirmed.

He considered that there are many Mexicans around the world, who can not only give Mexico currency and money, but can also give knowledge and technology, but the country is not open to receiving it, nor does it have the appropriate methods to attract them.

family heritage

Being the son of a pediatrician, a graduate of the Faculty of Ultrasound Medicine, he naturally decided to enter the highest house of studies.

“But when I arrived I saw that there was a burden, and I did a survey in which I asked the students how they felt in the UV rays, and whether they wanted to change something, among other questions,” he recalls.

His actions, striving to improve the academic level of the college, were not well heard by the directors, so he was invited “elegantly” to search for a better university.

“I received a phone call from the student advisor, from the principal, to tell me that I could not continue there, even though the academic secretary was by my side, there was a point at which it would have been better for me to leave the institution,” he said.

On the recommendation of the academic secretary at that time, he went to Puebla to continue his medical studies, since he was already in the second year of his degree. In the neighboring country he was awarded as the best student in the entire state, a title that he also won nationally.

“I was accepted into a very good university, where I was able to re-check my subjects and in the first year I got second place for academic excellence. From there I thought of going to a place where I could become a doctor and a researcher, that’s how I arrived in Germany, where I got my master’s degree They accepted me into the university as a researcher, and then I became a neurosurgeon residency.”

Pride of Veracruz

The Veracruz native recently obtained the designation to be Priv.-Doz (private lecturer) in Germany, which is higher than the Ph.D., which only 0.3% of German physicians obtain.

He also received financial support to advance his research aimed at finding a treatment to reduce strokes.

The specialist with recognized work of international influence and 50 publications has presented his research in the best universities in the world and has also collaborated with the University of Cambridge, considered the best in Europe.