Activities spread throughout the regional territory highlight the role of women researchers and encourage them to follow in their footsteps
Make visible the female talent that has always been present in research. That is the objective of the World Day of Women and Girls in Science, an event that has been commemorated every February 11 since 2015. For this reason, the Foundation for Training and Health Research of the Region of Murcia (FFIS) and the Murcian Institute of Biosanitary Research (IMIB) held a meeting with the Lyceum Association of Women Scientists of the Region of Murcia, which brings together researchers in this field. In this meeting, which took place in the auditorium of the Teaching Pavilion of the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital, they discussed strategies to eliminate gender barriers in the careers of female researchers.
Past, present and future of regional research came together to thank the “vocation, dedication, talent and sacrifice” that women scientists so honorably represent, in the words of María Fuensanta Martínez, director of the FFIS. “They are professionals whose concern is, through research, to improve the world around us,” praised Martínez, “and I don’t think there could be a nobler goal.”
The president of the Lyceum Association, Trinidad Herrero, pointed out that “scientists do not come from nowhere, but from an environment that should be created.” To do this, she explained that it is necessary to leave behind obstacles that hinder the research work of women, such as “the difficulty in achieving family reconciliation.” The secretary general of the Ministry of Health, Andrés Torrente, also present at the event, assured that “helping to improve the role of women is also improving science.” Finally, he highlighted the “silent struggle” that researchers from other generations had to carry out to “start the path towards equality.”
Urban art
Vindictive murals in ten educational centers
Yesterday, ten institutes in the Region commemorated the Day of Women and Girls in Science with their participation in the GraFitiS project, developed by the Seneca Foundation, dependent on the Ministry of Business, Employment, Universities and Spokesperson, and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (Fecyt).
Graffiti by the scientist María Montessori, at the Antonio de Nebrija educational center in Murcia.
These days, Bachelor of Arts students paint graffiti or murals of female researchers chosen by themselves on the facades of their institutes. The following centers participate in this initiative: Antonio de Nebrija (Murcia), IES Beniaján, IES Antonio Hellín Costa (Mazarrón), IES El Carmen, IES Ribera de los Molinos, IES Floridablanca (Murcia) who will paint Margarita del Val; IES J. Martínez Azorín (Yecla), IES José Ibáñez Martín (Lorca), IES Juan Sebastián Elcano (Cartagena) and IES Ruiz de Alda (San Javier).
Competition
‘Scientist for a day’ arrives in the Infant classrooms
For the second consecutive year, the regional school contest ‘Scientific for a day’ is held. Its intention is to motivate schoolchildren in the Region on the importance of promoting the vocation and interest in girls towards the scientific field and avoid making them invisible in the development of their professional careers. In this edition, as a novelty, in addition to the Primary education stage, the contest is also aimed at Infant students.
Lise Meitner’s name accompanies that of other illustrious scientists in the UPCT building. /
The theme should reflect the students’ vision of the role played by girls and women in science today, with a drawing, comic or news story with a scientific impact. The deadline for receiving the works is February 28. The jury’s decision will be announced the week before March 8, International Women’s Day.
UPCT
Lise Meitner joins the façade of illustrious
Since yesterday, the R+D+i building of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) has a new name on its facade of illustrious scientists: that of Lise Meitner, an Austrian researcher whose contribution was essential to the development of nuclear fission. Meitner discovered that the dispersion increases with the atomic mass of the atoms in metals, which was essential for the formulation of the model of the nuclear atom. However, she was the only scientist who did not want to collaborate in the creation of the nuclear bomb. In this way, she joins the previous winners of the citizen vote that the Polytechnic of Cartagena carries out each year to expand its facade of illustrious scientists with women’s names. In 2021 Margarita Salas won; in 2020, Rita Levi-Montalcini and Ada Lovelace; in 2019, Rosalind Franklin, and in 2018, Hypatia.