In June 2002, Dr Isabel Lázaro-Báez wrote:

"I am now back in my country, Mexico, and have a job that involves two different positions - as an associate researcher in the Minerals' Engineering area of the Instituto de Metalurgia de San Luis Potosí and as a lecturer at undergraduate and postgraduate level at the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP).

Although my official appointment is at the UASLP's Engineering Faculty, I am meant to spend 75% of my time at the Instituto de Metalurgia where my office is actually located. My research is entirely involved with hydrometallurgy and it is mainly focused on the study of leaching processes for copper and zinc sulfides.

San Luis Potosí is a nice, quiet colonial-style city 400 km from Mexico City. It is surrounded by mountains and is situated in the heart of the Mexican mining industry. My only disappointment so far is that the weather here is too hot for my liking - comparable to that in Perth, but without the sea breeze."