Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera, former President of Costa Rica and current FIU professor has been awarded an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) from the University of La Rochelle at France in recognition of his dedication to advancing sustainability and environmental preservation.
The award ceremony took place in context of an international seminar called “Smart and Sustainable Urban Coastal Environments: Building and Preserving Urban Coastal Cities.”
According to La Rochelle University's President Jean-Marc Ogier the award was bestowed on Solís for his “many, outstanding academic contributions to the social sciences and his political commitment as President of Costa Rica to promote sustainable development in his country and abroad.”
While praising La Rochelle University for its exceptional scholarly production and impact in the coastal regions of Europe, Solís thanked Ogier and accepted what he called an “undeserved honor,” on behalf of his country's longstanding support for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
After accepting the award, Solís – who teaches courses in the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center , housed under the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs – presented an inaugural keynote address entitled "Governance and Smart and Sustainable Urban Coastal Environments: A Case for Inclusion and Participation."
Solís was president of Costa Rica from 2014 to 2018. He was recently selected by the Organization of American States (OAS) to head its independent electoral mission to Guatemala , which will hold general elections for president and Congress on June 16.
In the fall of 2019, Solís will teach an undergraduate-level class on "Central America and the United States, a Contemporary Outlook."
Click here to get a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like for a group of graduate students in the Green School who took the former president's “Contemporary Politics in Central America” course in the spring of 2019.