Francisco Güell, researcher and coordinator of group 'Mente-cerebro' (Mind-brain) of the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Navarra, has made a stay at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) in Mexico invited by Héctor Velázquez, professor researcher of Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities of the UPAEP.

The stay has been funded through the scholarship Oxford Templeton Visiting Fellowships to Latin America. This scholarship seeks to encourage Latin American universities to invite scholars from around the world to share research, build relationships with faculty and create opportunities for postgraduate program andpostdoctoral students.

Héctor Velázquez invited Francisco Güell to give several courses and seminars, including the diploma 'Current challenges of science from a approach multidisciplinary ', aimed at students and teachers from all over the University. As he explained, the program sought to "promote an interdisciplinary exercise that went beyond adding certain humanistic concepts to the preparation of scientists or certain scientific content to the preparation of humanists".

On the other hand, Francisco Güell participated in the project 'Unity of the living. From the embryonic development to the generation of habits', directed by Héctor Velázquez and also financed by the John Templeton Foundation. It involves researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University Campus Biomedical of Rome.

The scholarship Templeton

During his stay, the ICS researcher gave lectures, seminars, courses and workshops at several universities in addition to UPAEP, as well as at public and private biomedical research centers. These include UNAM, first in the country and 128th in the world according to QS World University Rankings 2016; the high school Tecnológico de Monterrey, the high school Nacional de Perinatología, the Hospital Ángeles Valle Oriente and the research center Social Avanzada.

Dr. Güell's presentations focused on three topics. "Due to the context in which the country finds itself, the one with the greatest impact was that of parental and clinical responsibility with regard to the early embryo at framework of assisted human reproduction", he pointed out. Another of special interest was on the family, friendship and new technologies. And finally, on the effective implementation of the multidisciplinarity in the training and research university, "a topic always current and still unresolved".

During the next few years, and in the context of the group 'Mind-brain', Güell will deepen in the line of research that has as goal "that there is a transition from the conception of the human embryo from object to patient appealing to the responsibility and scientific information today available", he said. He will do so at partnership with the high school of Bioethics of Nuevo Leon (Monterrey, Mexico).

The scholarship Oxford Templeton Visiting Fellowships to Latin America is coordinated by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion (University of Oxford) and funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Ten four-month fellowships of 15,000 euros are offered for dialogue between science, theology and Philosophy.