IFUG, background of the Division of Sciences and Engineering, set the foundation of a work model oriented to research and form high quality human resources.

Guanajuato, Gto., October 6, 2016. Thirty years ago, with the purpose to develop basic and applied research and form human resources with high academic level, the Physics Institute of the University of Guanajuato (IFUG) was created. IFUG fulfilled its objectives, and managed that the scientific community –national and international—identify the state as a role model in this discipline.

IFUG set the foundation of what currently is the Division of Science and Engineering of Campus León, academic entity that maintains the work dynamic that distinguished the institute and, as a result, it maintains as one of the most outstanding Physics groups in the country.

IFUG's birth was part of a national strategy to decentralize higher education. Efforts and supports converged from institutions such as UNAM, CONACYT, UAM and specially, the enthusiasm of scholars such as Dr. Clicerio Avilez Valdez, founder and first Director of the institute, and Dr. Gerardo Moreno.

One of the key factors to achieve IFUG's beginning was the "impressive momentum" of Dr. Clicerio. Thanks to his negotiations they achieved the donation of a considerable amount of equipment from diverse research centers, he remembers Dr. Mauro Napsuciale Mendivil, one of the first professors at IFUG and current director of Support to Research and Postgraduate at UG.

Froom the beginning –he adds—there was a clear purpose: "make the Physics institute of the University of Guanajuato a national and international referent in research." What made them to always work to the limit, innovate and make decisions as a team.

The strategy was atypical, recognizes UG's Academic Secretary, Dr. José Luis Lucio Martínez, one of the first professors at the institute, where he was also a Director. "We consolidated research first, we started creating postgraduates and strengthening research groups," once this was achieved, the academic offer extended to cover the degree.

IFUG began its operations in 1986 sharing facilities with the students of the then Night High School of Leon and the School of Psychology, with less than a dozen students, a few professors –mostly foreigners, due to the lack of Mexican researchers—and the support from three administrators (an accountant, a draftsman and a secretary), it filled UG in 2008 with pride, when the Ph.D. in Physics became the first program at the institution to obtain the recognition of international quality granted by CONACyT.

In words from Dr. Mauro Napsuciale, "IFUG has been a successful project with and inclusive work," "a place where it is worth to be, worth to work in, and a national and international referent."

A path of work and successes

The leadership of Dr. Octavio Obregón Serrano, professor of the current Department of Physics and Emeritus researcher in the National System of Researchers (SNI), played an important role in IFUG's consolidation; who assumed the direction of the institute in '92, after the passing of Dr. Clicerio Avilez.

Dr. Obregón is attributed, firstly, the rebirth of IFUG, which went through a rough period by losing their founder and main negotiator. However, with the support from the then Rector of the University, Dr. Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, from allied institutions, specially UAM and the Center of Research and Advanced Studies from the National Polytechnic Studies (CINVESTAV), the project was rescued.

Two of the greatest hits of Dr. Obregón Serrano were the hiring of high level professors, with an enormous academic potential, and the diversification of the study lines. IFUG emerges oriented to the study of Physics of Particles, but in the new context was considered convenient to form research groups in areas such as gravitation and statistical physics.

A scheme was developed that prioritizes team work and the way decisions are made through collegiate organs, high standards of evaluation and professors, support for students with tutoring, among other models that were adopted later in the university.

Thanks to that, currently in the successor of IFUG –the Division of Science and Engineering of Campus Leon—two out of their three postgraduate programs are renowned by CONACyT as programs of international competence, the totality of their master and degree programs are part of the National Census Program of Quality Postgraduates, and 43 of their 57 full-time professors are part of the SNI.

Speaking about their experience in the Institute of Physics and in the Division, Dr. José Luis Lucio is direct: "There are no ideal institutions, these have to created. When someone wants a strong, solid institution, there has to be contribution and work for it, that was IFUG's spirit, where the most important was the people who made and effort to consolidate it, and that it had a great backup in the house of studies, where there is an ambience of tranquility and development, where work is the most important," he finalized.