The Scientific Culture Unit (UCC) of the University of Zaragoza is launching the fifth edition of the campaign ‘I am a scientist. I live in your neighbourhood’, starring 11 women researchers. It can be seen on Zaragoza's Gran Vía until the 9th of March. Along with many other activities, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is being commemorated on 11 February, a day to vindicate the role of women in science, to break the gender gap and to provide girls and adolescents with a point of reference.
The Ebro River Campus hosts the exhibition ‘EINA Horizons: Our Contributions to Engineering and Architecture’, a project that makes visible the trajectory and contributions of teachers, researchers and technologists linked to EINA in the fields of engineering, technology and architecture, in which a large number of I3A researchers also participate.
The exhibition can be visited at the Hypatia Library in the Betancourt building. It highlights the fundamental role of these professionals in research, innovation and knowledge transfer. Through a series of exhibition panels, their profiles, lines of research, outstanding projects and their impact on society are presented, serving as a reference and inspiration for new generations.
Esther Pueyo, I3A researcher in the BSICoS (Biomedical Signal Interpretation and Computational Simulation) group, is one of the 11 scientists who are part of the campaign ‘I am a scientist. I live in your neighbourhood’ campaign, an initiative that takes science to the streets and shows women researchers in different moments of their daily lives. In her participation in this UCC Unizar campaign, she stresses that science ‘will undoubtedly be better if it incorporates the views of men and women equally’.
She didn't have a clear vocation since she was a child, ‘I didn't imagine that I would become a researcher. In high school I liked a lot of subjects, so when I finished, I wasn't sure what career to study. In the end, she decided to study mathematics ‘and I'm very glad I made that decision’.
Today she is dedicated to Biomedical Engineering and has worked at the University of Zaragoza, the University of London and the University of Oxford, in addition to stays at other centres in Europe and America.
His research in the BSICoS group focuses on the processing of electrical signals, mainly related to the cardiovascular system. These signals are analysed using mathematical and engineering tools to extract information that is not available to the naked eye and that can be very useful to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
He is also working on the development of models that, using mathematical equations, describe cardiac electrical function from the cell to the whole body. Through computational simulations of these models, the aim is to better understand the behaviour of the heart and to propose new ways of treating diseases that are better tailored to the individual characteristics of each patient.
On the difficulties surrounding her research career, she has not felt that being a woman has been an obstacle, but she does recognise that, despite the progress made, ‘a pending issue is the reconciliation of professional and personal life. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to continue my research activity while raising my children,’ adds Esther Pueyo.
The exhibition ‘I am a Scientist. I live in your neighbourhood’ was presented yesterday at an event attended by various institutional representatives on the Gran Vía in Zaragoza. There were also 50 schoolchildren from the Joaquín Costa school who shared breakfast in the Paraninfo with the 11 scientists.
If you want to know more about this and other activities organised by the Scientific Culture Unit of the University of Zaragoza on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science you can consult their website: https://ucc.unizar.es/11f
This year's photographs were taken by the photographer Rocío Badiola.
