Dr. Alejandro Orsi teaches students in Ecuador

As they stepped off the plane and into the airport, Dr. Alejandro Orsi, an Associate Professor in the Department of Oceanography, and Christina Wiederwohl, a PhD graduate student in Oceanography were greeted and escorted to the headquarters of INOCAR, the Oceanographic Institute of the Ecuadorian Navy. Orsi and Wiederwohl would spend a week at the institute teaching an intensive eight-lecture course on “Global Scale Descriptive Oceanography, with a Regional Context”.

“We taught twelve students in the week,” Orsi said, “almost equally split between civilian technicians and Officers of the Ecuadorian Navy. Two of the officers expressed an intention of applying to graduate school at Texas A&M within the next couple of years.”

“In the mornings I lectured the students. All of my lectures were in Spanish, as were the Power point presentations,” Orsi said. “In the afternoons, with Ms. Wiederwohl’s assistance, there was a hands-on lab section that consisted of processing hydrographic data with software developed here at Texas A&M.”

During the weekend, Orsi and Wiederwohl did get a chance to unwind from their rigorous schedule and enjoy INOCAR’s Annual Celebration of The Hydrographer Day.

“It started in the morning, and it was attended by more than 100 people,” Orsi said. “A few former directors and many officers that used to work at INOCAR were present that day, and some of them are actually Aggies. They had a huge barbeque and a very interesting soccer game with the occasional iguana interruptions, and plenty of musical entertainment afterwards. They even honored my roots music with some karaoke tango later that night”

Orsi’s trip was part of an agreement between Texas A&M University and INOCAR, in which Texas A&M promotes the exchange of faculty and scientists for teaching and research programs at INOCAR. INOCAR, in return, encourages Ecuadorian students, researchers, and naval personnel to apply for admission as students to Texas A&M.