Participant 8. University of Antofagasta (UA), Antofagasta,  Chile, Co-ordinator

The University of Antofagasta (http://www.uantof.cl) has a long history starting from of the industrial School of the Saltpeter, founded in 1918. Today the UANTOF has 6,000 students, 230 professors and 150 administrative and service employees. The university offers 46 official undergraduate degrees. In addition, there are various postgraduate degrees, including 14 master and expert and 4 doctorate programmes in three of which have received the Seal of Excellence from the Chilean Ministry of Education. The scientists from the UANTOF that will participate in the project are members of the Chemistry Department, Group of Crystallography, Solid State Chemistry and Crystal Growing, and Faculty of Resources of Sea.

Role in the project

• Collection and classification of marine animals such as tunicates (Pyura stolonifera, P. praeputialis; Pyura chilensis; ascidians (Ascidia dispar) (WP1)
• Collection of macroalgae (WP1)
• Extraction and fractionation of collected marine material (WP1, WP2)
• Solution for crystal growth (WP2)
• Preparation and selection of single crystals (WP2)
• Recording of the diffraction spectra (WP2)
• Resolution and refinement of the obtained structures (WP2)
• Analysis and publication of results
• Task managers (I.B.)

Prof. Iván Brito, Ph.D.(Chemistry)

Professor of Inorganic Chemistry

Chemistry Department, Faculty of Basic Sciences

Email: ivanbritob(at)yahoo.com

Expertise: His research in chemistry covers especially the fields of inorganic synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, crystals growth, X-ray diffraction of natural products and metal-organic compounds.

Prof. Miguel Avendaño , Ph.D. (Biological Oceanography)

Professor of Oceanography

Aquaculture Department, Faculty of Resources of Sea.

Email. Mavendaño(at)uantof.cl

Expertise: His research in Oceanography covers especially  the field of biological oceanography.