Speaker
Description
The Central American and the Caribbean region has low scientific development indicators. Montero-Camacho et al. 2021 highlights four main factors for these: 1. Absences of Ph.D. programs; 2. Lack of postdoctoral opportunities; 3. Low to none economic incentives and 4. Poor infrastructure. Most of the production in the last 20 years comes from Puerto Rico, the country that hosted the Arecibo International Radio Telescope, followed by Cuba and Costa Rica. The numbers are in contrast with the scientific production of neighboring countries such as México, where UNAM employs more lecturers/researchers in astronomy than all Central American institutions.These numbers are unlikely to change in the close future due to problems in science funding and the diminish of the Gross Domestic Product in recent years. To tackle this problem several efforts are being done. With time programs like summer schools, mentorships, research internships can change the current situation.In this talk I present the recent, ongoing and future work of a group of Central Americans/Caribbeans, and persons related to the region, working for the development of the Astronomical Sciences in the region.
