Read the first instalment of Lanterns of Science
Santiago de Compostela, 10 February 2022. The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) once again joins the commemoration of the “International Day of Women and Girls in Science” in Galicia with a programme of activities that ranges from talks in schools to social-media campaigns.
The IIM lights the “Lanterns of Science”
The centre’s UCC+i and the Ocean Processes in Global Change group have written an outreach article as the first edition of the “Lanterns of Science” initiative, which is intended to be repeated on the next 11F in 2023. In this first edition, predoctoral researcher Marta López Mozos introduces the figure of Eunice Newton Foote, a nineteenth-century scientist and the first person to describe greenhouse gases as possible causes of global warming. The article will be published tomorrow in Faro de Vigo and on the centre’s website.
“Throughout history, a large number of women have remained hidden in the shadow of male figures who covered over their work, contribution and talent. For this reason, at the IIM we want to help shed light on these shadows, dispel them and show who the women are whose work guides the female scientists currently working in our institutions, all through the hands of researchers and technicians who are now beginning their scientific careers,” explains Jaime Amaro Blanco, head of Communications at the IIM UCC+I. The article will also be supported by illustrations by Laura Romero (@laurandcolours) and by posts on the IIM’s social media that will explore its information in greater depth.
In addition, the IIM Library service, in collaboration with the centre’s UCC+i, is launching “11F: Scientific Wheel”, an educational game with tests about some of the women who marked a before and after in science, based on the famous programme Pasapalabra. The game, already available on the Institute’s Twitter profile, will publish its answers throughout the month until 8 March (International Working Women’s Day).
Finally, in addition to the talks organised in collaboration with the CSIC UCC in Galicia, the IIM completes its programme for this event with the publication of the video “On board: a look at the life of the female scientists of the R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa”, which will be published on 23 February on its YouTube channel . The video, recorded and produced by researcher Lara García Alves, will be submitted in a shortened version to the #Cuéntame11F initiative and shows the work of several IIM scientists who embarked on the ECOSUMA project campaign at the end of 2021.
Other CSIC initiatives in Galicia
Initiatives of the CSIC Institutional Delegation in Galicia
Until 18 February, the Scientific Culture Unit (UCC) of the CSIC in Galicia is carrying out a dissemination campaign on its Instagram about collaborations with Faro de Vigo, with special emphasis on the section “Everyday science. The CSIC answers”, in which several CSIC centres in Galicia take part. This week, precisely, the section gives special prominence to women in R&D&I with the publication of the article “We tell girls to fight for their dreams: they are possible”, in which journalist Selina Otero interviews research-support technicians Lara García (IIM) and Cristina Álvarez (UTM).
Tomorrow, 11 February, a large meeting will be held with the 56 schools participating in the Faro da Escola project, in which Lara García (IIM) and Cristina Álvarez (UTM) will talk with students and teachers about their vocation, their work and their experience aboard oceanographic vessels. The activity, which will be held in two sessions to adapt to different school levels, is entitled “Science for women. Scientists also go to school”, and will be moderated by Luisa Martinez, head of the CSIC UCC in Galicia.
Also tomorrow, the CSIC Institutional Delegation in Galicia (Santiago de Compostela) will host a meeting between the Government delegate, José Miñones, the CSIC institutional delegate in Galicia, Javier Rey, and CSIC scientists in Galicia.
Initiatives of the Biological Mission of Galicia
The MBG has launched the #somosmaioría campaign on its Twitter profile, with the aim of making women’s position in R&D&I visible, specifically at the MBG, a centre made up mostly of women across its different profiles and positions of responsibility. The campaign involves predoctoral students and research technicians: Carmen Vega, Lucía Martín, Noemi Gesteiro, Ana Isabel Carballeda, Elena Zubiaurre and Beatriz Lago.
The campaign is complemented by outreach activities whose main purpose is to promote interest in science among women and girls in Pontevedra.
On the one hand, MBG research staff are visiting these days schools in the province of Pontevedra — CEIP Cabanas, CEIP San Martiño, CEIP Vilaverde and CEIP Manuel Padín Truiteiro — to give talks about their research.
On the other hand, tomorrow, the MBG headquarters (El Palacio, Salcedo) will host the round table “Women in research: obstacles and challenges”, moderated by the Government subdelegate in Pontevedra, María del Carmen Larriba, with contributions from Elena Cartea, director of the MBG and head of the Genetics, Breeding and Biochemistry of Brassicas group; Carmen Martínez, head of the Viticulture, Olive and Rose group; and Ana Carballeda, research assistant in the Crop Biochemistry and Physiology group. It will take place at 12:00 in the Pazo Assembly Hall and admission is free until capacity is reached.
Initiatives of the Padre Sarmiento Institute of Galician Studies
The IEGPS will broadcast tomorrow on its Twitter profile and on its website an outreach video to make visible women who, with different profiles, carry out their work at the centre, and will also offer a thread on “Women in Galician humanism”.
On 16 February the webinar “Violante of Aragon in Galicia: female power and peninsular geopolitics in the second half of the thirteenth century” will be delivered by Rosa María Rodríguez Porto, from the University of Santiago de Compostela. It can be followed at 17:00 through CONECTA CSIC.
On 23 February at 12:00 it will offer a guided tour of its facilities, with the collaboration of the Santiago City Council, on the occasion of “Rosalía de Castro Day”, and on 25 February it will host the specialised seminar “Liturgical spaces in female monasteries in medieval Iberia”, delivered by Mercedes Pérez Vidal, from the University of Oviedo. It will take place at 10:00 with free admission.
Initiatives of the Galician Institute of Agrobiological Research
This week Nieves Vidal González, from the Woody Species Biotechnology group, is visiting the Neira Vilas (Gondomar) and Eduardo Pondal (Cangas) schools to give talks to students on tree diversity and in vitro cultivation.
Mª Concepción Sánchez Fernández and Purificación Covelo Abeleira, from the same group, will be at CPR Inmaculada (Marín), IES Ortigueira (Ortigueira) and IES Plurilingüe Terra de Turonio (Gondomar) these days to speak to students about “Tree nursery and scientists” and “Science has no gender”.
Initiatives of the Galician Supercomputing Centre
Tomorrow, in the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Education Sciences (Campus Vida) of the University of Santiago de Compostela, the training and information sessions “STEM Women of the 21st Century” will be held. Their aim is to raise awareness of the relevant role of women in the professional, business and academic world linked to STEM disciplines and to make their talent visible in STEM professional contexts in Galicia.
CESGA will participate by giving the opening lecture, “Training as a strategic tool for developing female STEM talent”, delivered by María José Rodríguez Malmierca, head of the e-Learning and collaborative tools department at that centre.
Attendance can be either in person or online.
Initiatives of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography
The IEO activities for 11F are also framed within “Oceanicas: women and oceanography”, a project of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in collaboration with the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Staff from the A Coruña Oceanographic Centre (Pilar Díaz, Dolores Garabana, Mónica Castaño, Elena Rey, Carlota Rodríguez and María Reparaz) are giving talks these days for students at CPI Castro Baxoi (Miño), IES Breamo (Pontedeume), CEIP Mestre Martínez Alonso (Mos), CPI Castro Baxoi (Miño), IES Nº1 Ribeira (Ribeira), CEIP Jorge Juan (Perlío) and CEIP Valle-Inclán (Perillo). The topics range from the dangers and care of the oceans to maritime pollution, including the role of women scientists.
Likewise, staff from that IEO site will take a photograph and display event posters to call for access and participation by women and girls in education, training, science and technology. This photo will be shared on their social networks on Facebook and Twitter.
Staff from the Vigo Oceanographic Centre (Patricia Quintas, Marcia Ares, Uxía Tenreiro, María Sánchez, Ana Virginia Filgueiras, Soledad Garrido, Pilar Rial, Victoria Besada, Eva Velasco, Begoña Pérez, Laura Juárez and Paula Sánchez) are also teaching this week, giving talks for students at CPI Cova Terreña (Baiona), C.P.R. Compañía de María (Vigo), CPI Curros Enríquez (Pazos de Borbén), EEI A Galeriña (Pazos de Borbén), IES Carlos Casares (Vigo), CEIP Frián (Vigo), IES Ricardo Mella (Vigo), San José de Cluny (Vigo), CEIP Santiago de Oliveira (Ponteareas), CEIP Ría de Vigo (Vigo), CEIP O Pombal (Vigo), Colegio Losada (Vigo) and CEIP San Martiño (Pontevedra). The topics of the talks range from women in oceanography to the dangers of plastics in the oceans.