A 25-year working relationship between the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg and the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez was celebrated Tuesday at the ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory conference facility.

Benefits listed included increasing the number of Hispanics in ERDC’s work force as well as research and technology transfer in science and engineering.

“I’m thankful to each of you for the contributions that you have made and to all the contributions that have been made by this team, this partnership that’s come together,” ERDC Director Jeffery Holland said to university leaders and dozens of current and former interns in attendance. “Your excellence is evident by your work and I’m proud to lead an organization that’s dedicated to solving tough problems and making the world a safer place. Perhaps, even more importantly for today, I’m thankful that each of you are part of that team.”

ERDC has hired 42 of the university’s graduates permanently, 20 of whom came through internships.

In total, 334 student interns from Puerto Rico have been at ERDC since the program started, including 31 last summer.

Of those, 68 percent were civil engineers and 32 percent were from other engineering and scientific disciplines; 43 percent were bachelor’s students, 53 percent were master’s students, and 4 percent were working on their doctorates.

Dr. Robert Whalin, director emeritus of Waterways Experiment Station, the former name of the facility off Halls Ferry Road, was honored as the founder of the partnership.

Professor Ismael Pagan-Trinidad, civil engineering and surveying department head, who helps coordinate the internship program, said the program has made the university “better and more efficient.”

ERDC, established in Vicksburg in 1928 as an Army Corps of Engineers hydraulics research facility, now performs studies in a broad range of scientific areas under contract. ERDC employs more than 2,500 people, has $1.2 billion in facilities and an annual budget of more than $1.5 billion.

Other Corps organizations now working with the University of Puerto Rico include the Mississippi Valley Division in Vicksburg and the St. Louis, St. Paul and New Orleans districts.