Brazilian student pursuing doctoral internship thanks to cotutelle agreement

Laura Gambera, a Brazilian student from Paulista State University (UNESP), will spend one semester at USACH, studying the last part of her PhD in Mathematics in functional differential equations. 

“I came last year with a scholarship for a six-month internship, and now I am here again because there is a cooperation agreement between USACH and UNESP to obtain a dual degree doctorate,” says Laura who is the first student of Mathematics from the Paulista State University to make use of the agreement, which she learned about thanks to a professor. “My tutor had already worked with a professor from USACH of the Department of Mathematics, she had participated in congresses and when we worked on my doctoral project we were already thinking about me coming to Chile.”

The cotutelle agreement in which the student is required to spend twelve months at the foreign university, continuously or in stages, with flexibility according to each student,”with the cotutelle agreement, opportunities for other students to do the same, to get to know other environments, other countries. The first six months I came with a scholarship, for the second six months I saved money, because now I have my own resources, but it was easier because I already knew everything.”

She says she chose USACH because her professor--an eminence in the area--recommended our university because of the quality of research,”the group of Mathematics at USACH is very strong in the subject I am developing.” 

In the Department of Mathematics, she works with professor Carlos Lizama, “together we have proposed three problems, we have already developed one, we published an article. This year we started a second problem, solving an equation using all the tools we were working on and now we are finishing it and we hope to publish again.” 

Regarding her experience at the university, Laura is happy, "I have had a good relationship with my colleagues in general, what I like of USACH is the the atmosphere, it is a beautiful university. My university in Brazil is very small, and here is huge, you have many more things." But she also adds that she has experienced personal growth, “coming here has been more independent, because I have always studied at the ssame university, I lived with my parents and it is a personal challenge to live here, to have new experiences and to know what I am capable of.” 

Within her internship, she has been able to participate in several international conferences and talks, and in the future she hopes to continue to strengthen the relationship she has with our university, “next year there is a congress of Mathematics in Colombia called GAFEVOL, where researchers are always willing to show their work and receive suggestions, and the idea is to participate together in this congress soon.” 

Finally, Laura recommends living this experience abroad, especially if you want to devote yourself to research, “meeting more people from another university gives you more research options and a greater network.”