Thursday, July 3, 2025

Oaxaca student awarded doctorate in chemistry by MIT

An indigenous student from a poor region of Oaxaca has been awarded a doctorate in theoretical chemistry by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ricardo Pablo Pedro, 27, was born to an indigenous Chinantec family in the small town of La Mina, Tuxtepec, where his early years were marked by poverty and discrimination. But those obstacles were never enough to stop from achieving his goal: obtaining a doctorate from a foreign school.

After obtaining a full scholarship and studying for six years at MIT, that dream has come true.

“My mother always told me that education was the only thing that would get me going forward, and I understood there was a reward if you made the effort,” Pablo told the news agency Conacyt Prensa last year.

His mother traveled to the United States for her son’s graduation ceremony in May, where Concepción Pedro proudly wore the traditional huipil, a common garment among the women of the Cuenca region of Oaxaca.

And her son wore his sandals, which had in the past earned him the discriminatory label, “indio huarachudo,” or sandal-wearing Indian.

Pablo plans to dedicate the summer months to finish several research projects, after which he wants to enroll in a post-doctorate course and later, perhaps, teach at MIT.

In 2017 he was awarded the National Youth Prize by the Mexican government.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
people releasing fish in shallow water

Environment Ministry releases 40,000 baby totoaba into the Gulf of California

0
The Environment Ministry, working with the private sector and civil society, has been conducting a repopulation project that included the recent release of 40,000 hatchlings.
crematorium in Ciudad Juárez

2 arrests made after 383 bodies found piled up at Ciudad Juárez crematorium

0
The crematorium, which had the permits to operate, was housing corpses for as long as five years and reportedly gave relatives of the deceased "other material" in place of ashes.
a person registering their fingerprints

Senate grants Security Ministry broad data access powers, sparking ‘police state’ fears

9
The federal government argues that the National Investigation and Intelligence System Law, popularly referred to as the "Spy Law," is required to bolster the state's capacity to combat organized crime.