Some time ago, a scientist friend of mine who was visiting the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP), observed that El Paso is like an island. It is physically several hundred miles away from most major cities and culturally well separated from mainstream American culture. These characteristics make our region special and impose some constraints on the mentoring we provide to our science students. ...
In October 2002, 1 year after I started my PhD in mathematics, a poster hanging on a wall of the Faculty of Science at the University of Zaragoza in Spain attracted my attention. It read something like, "Do you want to find a job? Then help us organise a job fair. ..." The person behind this initiative was María José Villacampa, the vice-chancellor of the Faculty of Science, who invited us, scien...
