In a solemn ceremony headed by the Vice-Rector of Universidad of Concepcion, Dr. Bernabé Rivas, and the Graduate Director, Dr. Ximena García, among other university authorities, 78 graduates from the Ph.D. programs of our university, received their doctoral medals. Among them, there were six former graduate students from Center for Research in Mathematical Engineering, CI²MA, and Doctoral Program in Applied Sciences with a minor in Mathematical Engineering, five of which specialized in Numerical Analysis of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). They are: Mario Álvarez, Eligio Colmenares, Carlos García, Gonzalo Rivera and Lihki Rubio, besides Hernán Mardones, respectively .

“I chose UdeC for my Ph.D. studies because of the academicians of the program, who guaranteed that I would obtain the researcher profile I was looking for”, Venezuelan Eligio Colmenares said in an interview by Diario Concepción. “I could say that it is the most important experience of my life, because I not only trained, but also grew as a person and learned about another culture” said the new Doctor, who currently works in Chillán as an academician at Universidad del Bío-Bío.

Dr. Ximena García explained that “as any other university, this the highest academic degree awarded by UdeC. It is an important number of Doctors that positions us in the third place in the country with respect to the number of graduates of a quite diverse group of programs and disciplines, reason why we are very happy and satisfied”. "Today we have about 700 students in the postgraduate degrees, in doctorates programs which represents about 10% of all enrollments and national graduation. This indicates once again the importance that UdeC has, through its graduate programs and especially of its doctorates, in the national context. It is also important to highlight that in these doctoral programs there is a strong international component, given that 20 to 25% of the students come from other countries, specially Colombia”, Vicerrector Rivas said. In Chile, there are currently 284 PhD programs, 37 of which are in the Biobío Region. Of these, 31 programs are taught at the UdeC, distributed in different faculties and areas of knowledge.