Guanajuato, Gto., October 6, 2016.- "The Department of Biology is young, but not inexperienced [...] Today we celebrate its 35th anniversary. More than three decades of forming professionals in the distinct specialties of biological sciences, of forming research groups that work in the classrooms, in the laboratories, but also in the field, very close to society," said Dr. Claudia Gutiérrez Padilla, Academic Secretary of Campus Guanajuato while inaugurating the activities organized to celebrate the XXXV Anniversary of the Department of Biology at the University of Guanajuato (UG).

Dr. Gutiérrez Padilla extended his congratulation, on behalf of the Campus' Rector, Dr. Teresita de Jesús Rendón Huerta Barrera, "to everyone that every day build the history of this department and consolidate the scientific and technological culture of the University."

Dr. Roberto Zazueta Sandoval, Director of the Department of Biology, expressed his proud for being part of this academic community, "being in teaching, being part in forming so many people, is a privilege for me. I wish that this department continues to be what it has been for 35 years: a vanguard place for research in the country."

At the presidium were also present QFB. Alfonso Trujillo Valdivia, Academic Secretary of the Division of Natural and Exact Sciences (DCNE), Dr. Julio César Villagómez Castro, Coordinator of the Postgraduate in Biology and Dr. Everardo López Romero, dean professor of the Department of Biology and Honoris Causa by UG.

The genesis of a new calling at UG

To begin the commemoration, Dr. Everardo López Romero, one of the pioneers of this program, made a resemblance of the Department of Biology. He reminded how in 1978, as part of a federal initiative to decentralize science, it was proposed to open a research institute in any of the states within the republic. The proposed cities were Aguascalientes, Guanajuato and Morelia; and it was Guanajuato, finally, who embraced the project.

The next year, an agreement between the UG, the Department of Public Education and Center of Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav) Zacatenco was formalized to open the Research Institute in Experimental Biology (IIBE), which was officially inaugurated on March 17, 1981 –nevertheless, the first courses had already began in July 1979—, working in the Buildings J&K the ancient Faculty of Chemistry.

Professors José Ruiz Herrera, Arturo Flores Carreón and Everardo López Romero were the founders of the Master degree program in Sciences (Biology) offered at UG, and afterwards, in 1983, they established the Ph.D. program in Experimental Biology –the first outside Mexico City—which would witness its first three doctors in 1985.

In 2001, the agreement Cinvestav-UG finished, but with the support from the then Rector Cuauhtémoc Ojeda Rodríguez, the professor staff remained at the University of Guanajuato. So, in the first decade of the XXI century, IIBE become a Department.

Currently, the Department of Biology has a staff of 27 professors, grouped in four academic bodies, which develop diverse areas of biological research and participate in teaching in both degrees and postgraduate at DCNE, in the areas of biology, ecology, genetic engineering, molecular genetics, bioethics and normativity.