At UNAM, a high level of knowledge in Earth Sciences
“I didn’t know where Mexico was, I was only located in Latin America,” he recalled with fluent Spanish. He studied for five years in Cuba, the first country in the Americas to learn the language and earn a degree in geology. came to study for something that he could hardly achieve, in his native country, where he attended high school.
The Republic of Zimbabwe is located on the other side of the world in South East Africa; It is a landlocked country bordered by Botswana, Zambia, South Africa and Mozambique.
“I studied in Zimbabwe until high school, then with a scholarship I was able to travel to Cuba to study,” he recalled. While in that Caribbean country, he became interested in pursuing graduate studies in Mexico, and learned of the prestige of the National University, an institution he “met” through the Internet and through Mexican medical students preparing in that country. Were staying
He told me in an interview, “They told me about UNAM, it got me interested, I did more investigation and I liked what I found: it was a big and highly respected university.”
He arrived in 2015 and completed his Master’s and PhD in Earth Sciences at the UNAM Institute of Geophysics, where he was tutored by researcher Carles Canet Mikkel, who taught him to be an independent student and seek his own research. “They prepared me for the postdoctoral program,” he insisted.
Joseph Madondo realized that the level of this career is high in the university. “In Zimbabwe we think that everything that is most developed comes from Europe and the United States, so those who have money to study go to those places or to Australia. Received a level of education that can be compared to Europe and the United States. I am proud to study here and impressed that the university is in Latin America, he admitted.
“Besides, UNAM is practically free. I come from a humble family in my country, so the opportunity to study with quality and without representing much expense is very valuable. I have an economic background from the National Council of Science and Technology I got a scholarship, which I probably wouldn’t have gotten in the United States”, he said.
exploration and prospecting
The academic said he experienced a culture shock, which was difficult to assimilate at first. “The culture is completely different and I began an adaptation process, as the educational system is also different. Here in Mexico the emphasis is on a student doing research and striving for himself, while in Zimbabwe education is from teacher to student It happens, listens to the teacher only.
Joseph Madondo has a Mexican wife and daughter. He plans to continue at UNAM, now as a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Geosciences in Jurquila. campus Querétaro of this house of study.
“My line of research is doctoral, which is about the origin of mineral deposits. It deals with how they are formed, what processes are involved in their origin and where we can find them. I am interested in exploration and prospecting,” he explained.
Joseph Madondo continues his expertise in manganese mineral deposits. In Mexico is in the municipality of Hidalgo-Molango de Escamilla – one of this material, the largest in the American continent and the most extensive in the world, which attracts attention in the world.
Once he completes his post-doctorate, in two years, he aims to become a researcher at the Center for Geosciences, which has very good professional-level researchers from different countries.
So far, he has not met any other student from his country. “I have colleagues from Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon studying at UNAM, both undergraduate and postgraduate, but none from my country,” he highlighted.
Recently, Joseph Madondo won the third place in the BAL-UNAM Prize for Earth Sciences. “It is a recognition with which I feel very happy, I feel that all the efforts of the master’s degree and doctorate have been worth it, as my research work of many years in manganese deposits has been recognised,” he concluded.
