During its 8 years of institutional life, Yachay Tech University has trained students that stand out nationally and internationally and who have been awarded different recognitions by the best Universities and Institutes worldwide.

This year, around 300 master’s students from the best universities in the world applied to the Max Planck Graduate Center for Quantum Materials for postgraduate studies at the different Max Planck Institutes (MPI) that are part of the program. Jorge Castro and Jorge Cardenas, Chemistry graduates of the 2nd class of Yachay Tech, are part of the 3% selected.

The Max Planck Graduate Center for Quantum Materials is a consortium of several MPI institutes in different cities in Germany, specialized in different fields of science and research. After a demanding selection process, Jorge Castro, currently a master’s student in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Groningen, was accepted at the Max Planck Institute MPI to continue with his doctoral studies. Castro will join the MPI of Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg under the direction of Dr. Mariana Rossi in the group SAbIA (Simulations from Ab Initio Approaches), which focuses on the study of the impact of temperature and quantum nuclear motion on the structural and electronic properties of complex chemical systems.

Castro stated: “The quality of education of Yachay Tech is at the level of the best scientific research institutions in the world. Our achievements today are just the beginning of something much bigger than our dreams, for us, for our families and for the country.”

His studies aim to investigate topological materials that are promising for a wide range of technological applications due to their exotic electronic properties and, at the same time, have attracted great theoretical and experimental interest during the last decade, which resulted in the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics. The electronic properties of materials include the ability of currents to flow without resistance and to respond in unconventional ways to electric and magnetic fields.

“The motivation and skills we acquired at our university are at the level of the best research centers around the world. Yachay Tech is the way we can demonstrate that Ecuador can change the world through science and we are the clear example that this project is training future scientists/professionals who will make a significant change in future generations,” Cardenas said.

With these actions, Yachay Tech University is committed to training young professionals who stand out internationally for their academic excellence.