The Drought Symposium Mexican Team
The Rio Grande
Agronomy
Luis Rendón Pimentel, Gerente de Distritos de Riego
(biography to come)
Ecology
Irene Pisanty, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Irene Pisanty obtained her bachelor and postgraduate degree at the Faculty of Science of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She focused her career on vegetal ecology and environmental subjects. Between 1995 and 1998 she was leader of the Ecosystem Conservation Program in the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, where she coordinated projects such as the North American Ecoregions, the North American Bird Conservation Initiative Program(NABCI), and North American Biodiversity Information Network (NABIN). She held the position of Secretary of Academic Staff Affairs of the Faculty of Science from 1998 to 2001, and Consultant Coordinator at the National Institute of Ecology (INE) from 2001 to 2007. At INE she coordinated several research projects such as the "Environmental Analysis of the Gulf of Mexico", "Towards Sustainability: A Latin America and Caribbean Perspective." Also she was in charge of the elaboration and implementation of the Fund for Environmental Research. At present she is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science, where she has been teaching from more than 30 years. As a part of her work she participates in many environmental research projects such as an Environmental Analysis in the Chilapa Region in the state of Guerrero (in partnership with the Environmental Studies Group and Sanzekan Tinemi Cooperative); the Mexico City's Ecologic Park (in partnership with the UNAM Institute of Ecology)and in Cuatrocienegas, Coahuila and The Natural Capital of Mexico, volume VI, a project led by the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO). (See abstracts)
Economics
Carlos Muñoz Piña, National Institute of Ecology (Instituto Nacional de Ecología-INE)
Carlos Muñoz Piña is the director of Environmental Economics and Public Policy Research at the Instituto Nacional de Ecología (INE), the research agency of the Mexican Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. His research team has prepared several initiatives on environmental taxes and other economic instruments for environmental policy, it was also responsible for the design of the Mexican system of Payments for Hydrological Environmental Services (PSAH), and has helped to extend it into the biodiversity and carbon sequestration environmental markets project (www.ine.gob.mx). Dr. Muñoz Piña has a Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and has worked as an economist for the government of Mexico, the World Bank, the London Environmental Economics Centre, with internships at the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Montreal and the Resources Renewal Institute in San Francisco. He has published papers on topics related to the economics of rural migration, environmental taxes, common property resources, poverty and the environment, economic valuation of ecosystems, water economics and policy and the payment of environmental services. He has taught microeconomics and environmental economics courses at ITAM, UC Berkeley, Universidad Iberoamericana, Colegio de México and ITESM. (See abstracts)
Hydrology
Joel Carrillo Rivera, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
Joel Carrillo Rivera is a researcher at the Institute of Geography of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). His research group has investigated groundwater functioning and its relation with other components of the environment, such the definition of areas for Payment for Hydrological Environmental Services (PSAH). Dr. Carrillo has an M.Sc. and Ph..D. in hydrogeology from London University, and has worked in Australia (Mines Department, Victoria), the Federal Electricity Commission,and UNAM. He has been an adviser to the Mexican Lower House and is an independent expert for the European Commission; he is president and founder of the Mexican Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists. Dr. Carrillo has authored papers, books, and book chapters on groundwater topics related to its functioning, environmental impacts, urban growth, subsidence, isotopes and geochemical indicators, coastal aquifer behaviour, geological control, socioeconomic constrains, and payment of environmental hydrological services.He has lectured in graduate courses on these topics in Mexico as well as in Argentina, Paraguay, Cuba, Colombia, and Chile.He is a tutor in the postgraduate programs of Earth Sciences and Geography at UNAM and a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. (See abstracts)
Policy
Liliana Meza García, Technical Secretary, Social Cabinet of President Felipe Calderón
Liliana Meza García is the Technical Secretary of the Social Cabinet of President Felipe Calderón. She graduated with honors with a B.S. and an M.Sc. in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). She received an M.A and Ph.D. in Labor Economics from the University of Houston. Dr. Meza has published more than 20 articles in specialized journals and has authored two books and coauthored five more on the subject of migration and labor economics. She has been invited as a speaker to several academic events in Mexico and other Latin American countries, as well as in the U.S. and Europe. She has been an invited scholar at American University and at Georgetown University, and has been a consultant to the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank. She was a Professor and Researcher at the Universidad Anáhuac and the Universidad Iberoamericana, in Mexico City. In 2005 she was appointed as Coordinator of the Program of Migration Issues at the Universidad Iberoamericana, and in 2007 was invited to collaborate with President Felipe Calderón as Technical Secretary of the Social Cabinet. (See abstracts)
Technology-Irrigation
Herrera Lezama, Fideicomisos Instituidos con Relación a la Agricultura (FIRA).
(biography to come)
Water Management
Sergio Soto-Priante, National Water Commission (Comision Nacional del Agua-CNA)
Sergio Soto-Priante has a bachelor's degree in biochemical engineering. He has had graduate work in food engineering and holds a master's degree in business aministration, all of them from the Monterrey Technological Institute (ITESM). He teaches regular courses at Monterrey Tech, the University of the Americas, and the Popular University (UPAEP). He is currently the Deputy Director General for Irrigation Infrastructure in the National Water Commission. He served in various capacities in the Mexican Government since 2001, including a special task of development of the marginal rural regions in the Ministry of Social Development (2001-2005). In 2006, he was appointed as the Under Minister for Social Development. Prior to his work in the Mexican Federal Government he was head of the international relations department of the Mexican Confederation of Employers (COPARMEX) and Secretary General of the Mexican chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). He has been guest lecturer in several OECD sponsored forums, and vice chairman of the Working Party on Rural Development, also in the OECD. (See abstracts)
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