The Royal Galician Academy of Sciences (RAGC) and Pontevedra Provincial Council consider it to be of common interest to collaborate on the 2nd edition of the Aida Fernández Ríos Lecture Series in 2021, in order to promote public interest and support the enormous scientific work carried out in Galicia. Since its foundation in 1973, the RAGC has organised activities, courses and lecture series throughout Galicia and, in line with its objectives of disseminating science and technology, aims to establish this lecture series addressing different topics with social impact.

The first block consists of webinar-format lectures delivered by renowned professionals in their fields, proposed by the RAGC. The second block consists of lectures in schools in the province of Pontevedra aimed at secondary-school students.

Aida Fernández Ríos (Vigo, 1947-Moaña, 2015) was a researcher noted for her knowledge of ocean acidification caused by climate change and was the first woman to direct the Institute of Marine Research.

She completed her elementary secondary education in Vigo and, at the age of 25, began working as a laboratory assistant at the CSIC Institute of Fisheries Research, now known as the Institute of Marine Research. She combined her work with her studies, which allowed her to complete upper secondary education, study Biology at the University of Santiago and, in 1992, defend her doctoral thesis, supervised by Fernando Fraga, on phytoplankton in the Ría de Vigo and its environmental conditions. Shortly afterwards she joined the Institute of Fisheries Research as a researcher, where she developed her entire career until reaching the highest category as a research professor. From 2006 to 2011 she was director of the IIP, becoming the first woman to hold that responsibility. From phytoplankton studies she moved into physical oceanography and, finally, into studies on ocean acidification as a consequence of climate change, becoming a leading researcher in Europe and chairing an International Geosphere Committee with these objectives from 2005 to 2011. In 2015 she was appointed full member of the Royal Galician Academy of Sciences.