Patricia Stock with her INIA colleague Patricia Navarro in Puerto Varas, Chile.
Patricia Stock is the new head of the Department of Horticulture in Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. She recently traveled to Chile and Argentina to work on building new collaborations with research institutions and universities there.
Where were you working?
Temuco, Valdivia and Puerto Varas in Chile, and La Plata and Buenos Aires in Argentina.
What language is spoken there?
Spanish.
What was the focus of your work?
I met with colleagues from the National Institute of Agriculture Research (INIA, el Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias) to discuss potential collaborations between the College of Agricultural Sciences and the INIA, focused on horticulture and pest management. I also went to help coordinate an international conference (Society for Invertebrate Pathology) that will take place next year. In Valdivia I gave a seminar for graduate students at Universidad Austral; and in Argentina, I had a seminar at the Center for Parasites and Vector Studies (CEPAVE) at Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
My whole career has been a multitude of collaborations with people all over the world. I feel it’s important to connect and communicate with other parts of the world. Chile and Oregon have a lot of commonalities in terms of what happens in agriculture, at least in the regions where I’ve been — similar crops, similar pests, scientists doing similar research — so why not join forces? Agriculture is global: What happens here bounces back somewhere else. International collaborations make us better in multiple ways. We are working on agreements with INIA and CEPAVE to build more collaboration. I’m hoping that we can open up to faculty and students who are interested in exchanging resources, visiting us or visiting them, maybe giving courses together with Ecampus. That opens the doors for multiple opportunities to reach Latin American countries that are eager and anxious to collaborate with the rest of the world.
Stock, center, with colleagues from CEPAVE at Universidad Nacional in La Plata, Argentina.
How much time have you spent there?
This was my fourth trip to Chile, and the trip was 15 days total; I am from Argentina originally but have lived in the U.S. for 31 years.
What’s the best food you’ve eaten there?
Empanadas and alfajores. (Alfajores are dulce de leche sandwich cookies.)
What’s an important phrase you’ve learned to say in the local language?
I am a native Spanish speaker, so no new words for me, but it is always fun to learn local slang. It changes depending on people’s generation and age.
In both Chile and Argentina, they learn English from a young age; a lot of people start in elementary school.
What’s a non-touristy thing you did there?
I like to walk and get embedded in the culture, see people in action in their own settings. I love the architecture, especially looking at old buildings. I always like to put myself in a time machine and think, “Wow, this building is from the 19th century; what were people thinking walking down these streets? What did this street look like?” I love to do that. And trying local foods, taking local transportation.
Stock visited the Petrohue Rapids in Puerto Varas, Chile.
What’s one thing from your experience that you’ll take back to Oregon with you?
Chile is amazing. It’s a very blessed country out of all of Latin America in terms of their infrastructure and resources. And there is great networking between many academic institutions. They team up with each other to find the right investigator or the right resources for students. They are also able to host students and give them the opportunity to do research as interns. There seems to be good synchronization of activities — they manage to make it work. The quality of education is great.
What were you most surprised to learn?
How expensive the cost of living is in both countries, considering their income is much less than what we earn in the U.S.
Who are your closest local colleagues?
Patricia Navarro (INIA Chile), Cristian Montalva (Universidad Austral, Chile), Fernanda Achnielly and Victoria Micieli (CEPAVE, Argentina).
Stock, right, sits beside the international director of INIA, Maria Teresa Velez, in Chile.
What’s the biggest challenge of working there?
Funding and access to resources, especially in Argentina. Chile is actually in a very good situation in terms of research.
Besides family, what do you miss most from home?
The beautiful city of Corvallis and how nice it is to not live in an urban area with lots of traffic and pollution.
What piece of advice would you give others who might travel there?
Allocate time to have fun and tour both countries. If you are going to do things for work, try to allocate time for relaxing and getting embedded in the culture. That’s very important at the personal and professional level.
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