The anticipation of contagion scenarios during the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of pests in the field of forestry plantations are some of the areas in which Dr. Yissedt Lara Díaz has applied her knowledge in Numerical Analysis of Partial Differential Equations, who joined the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Statistics of the Faculty of Basic Sciences of the Universidad Católica del Maule (UCM) a few months ago as an academic researcher in the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Statistics of the Faculty of Basic Sciences of the Universidad Católica del Maule (UCM).   

A mathematician with a degree from the U. del Valle (Colombia) and a master's degree from the U. Federal do Paraná (Brazil), Yissedt obtained the highest academic degree in the PhD programme in Applied Sciences with a major in Mathematical Engineering at the Universidad de Concepción, UdeC, developed in the facilities of the Centre for Research in Mathematical Engineering, CI²Ma, of the same university.   

During the development of the PhD", the researcher explained, "I managed to acquire very important skills and competencies in research, mainly in the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, and with the support of my tutor, Dr. Raimund Bürger, I reached a level of independence thanks to his support, as it allowed me to explore an approach that had not been worked on in the PhD, achieving a good number of publications, contacts and ideas for further collaboration".  

Meanwhile, in terms of the knowledge acquired at the UdeC, Yissedt highlights that "the basic training provided by the PhD has allowed me to explore this area at UCM and, in addition, the specialisation course in Calculus of Variations and Optimisation gave me tools for the course I taught last semester in the PhD in Applied Mathematical Modelling at UCM".    

In this regard, the director of CI²Ma, Dr. Rodolfo Araya Durán, emphasised that "the success of a doctoral programme is measured not only in the publications it generates but also in knowing where our graduates are working and the influence they are having. Looked at from the latter point of view, our programme has been very successful, since it has helped the development of applied mathematics both in Chile and abroad. Finally, we are sure that Dr. Lara will be a great contribution to the development of the Universidad Católica del Maule, and we wish her every success. 

New opportunities  

Last June, YIssedt joined UCM through a competition for the position of research academic in mathematical modelling. "At the time of the evaluation of candidates, I was developing a postdoc in a FONDEF project, which was under the direction of the director of the Data Science Unit (UDS) of the UdeC Guillermo Cabrera and the academic of the Faculty of Forestry Sciences UdeC, Simon Sandoval, with whom I collaborated in the development of a mathematical model for a problem of forest pests. This is a topic in which I am very interested, and with which I hope to be able to realise more research ideas," Yissedt explained.   

Among her current duties, the mathematician highlighted teaching work at undergraduate and postgraduate level, specifically for the PhD in Mathematical Modelling, in which, she explained, "I have been in charge of courses such as Variational Methods and Continuous Modelling, and I also support thesis seminar courses, as well as directing theses, especially in the research lines of Public Health and Biomedicine, and Forestry and Livestock Systems".   

Dr. Lara is also a member of the "Quality Committee of the Mathematics and Computer Science Pedagogy programme, where the programme is evaluated and supported, so that the quality criteria are met, which is important work to face the accreditation processes".   

Frontier research, networks and gender  

In terms of scientific tasks, the academic explained that "I have been participating in events such as seminars and colloquiums, sharing my interests and advances in research with different audiences, which is also an opportunity to extend collaboration ties. This year, I will take part in research projects, one internal, awarded jointly with my colleague Victor Osores, who is the principal investigator, and another with the Centre for Mathematical Modelling (CMM) of the University of Chile, which I won, and which seeks to strengthen collaborative ties with researchers from the national network.   

Regarding the latter project, entitled 'Numerical analysis and scientific computation for epidemiological models with spatial heterogeneity', it is an initiative in collaboration with the CMM researcher and academic at the Universidad del Bío-Bío (UBB), Dr. Verónica Anaya Domínguez. "With this proposal," said the alternate director of the 'DSALT' Ring Project on Computational Mathematics for Desalination Problems (ACT 210087), "we hope to contribute to sufficient conditions to establish formulations for the extinction or spread of a disease, in the sense of R0 (basic reproductive number), for spatio-temporal models formulated in terms of PDEs, such as those of the convection-reaction-diffusion type.  

"This year," Yissedt added, "I am also involved in the organisation of the Applied Mathematics thematic session of the Jornada Matemática de la Zona Sur (JMSZ 2024), and it has been a great opportunity to get to know everything that can be done in this area".   

Finally, from his time at the UdeC, specifically at the facilities of the Centre for Research in Mathematical Engineering, CI²Ma, Yissedt also highlighted the formation of support networks between those who were then postgraduate students and today are academic colleagues and academics from various institutions in Chile and abroad. "Among the PhD graduates and those who share space at CI²Ma, from our work positions, we have managed to create a collaborative network, which has allowed us to participate in different instances, from talks at events, research visits, as well as invitations to collaborate," he said.   

In the same sense, Dr. Raimund Bürger, director of the aforementioned doctorate and deputy director of the CI²Ma, said that "everything that Yissedt is reporting reconfirms that she is capable of joining different working groups and making active contributions, both in the areas of teaching and research, on very diverse topics".   

"I know," the UdeC academic continued, "that she has been doing successful independent research work for a long time. On the other hand, as programme director, I value the fact that graduates create their own collaborative networks and, personally, I also think that we should continue to promote collaborative networks of women mathematicians among themselves, as is the case with the MWC initiative. I wish Yissedt every success for the implementation of the MWC project, and her and Victor for the internal UCM project. If you need the support of CI²Ma, you know that our doors are open to you.