Professor Francesca Figueras, first President of the Spanish Astronomical Society
Francesca Figueras, Professor of the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics and Vice-Director of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB, IEEC-UB), was appointed President of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), a title she will be in charge of from January onwards. Figueras, the first woman to chair SEA since the entity was founded, twenty-four years ago, will substitute the astrophysicist Javier Gorgas, Professor at the Department of Astrophysics in the Complutense University of Madrid, President since 2013.
Francesca Figueras, Professor of the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics and Vice-Director of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB, IEEC-UB), was appointed President of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), a title she will be in charge of from January onwards. Figueras, the first woman to chair SEA since the entity was founded, twenty-four years ago, will substitute the astrophysicist Javier Gorgas, Professor at the Department of Astrophysics in the Complutense University of Madrid, President since 2013.
The appointment of the new presidency and board was published in the 12th SEA Scientific Meeting, which took place from 18th to 22nd of July in Bilbao. This scientific meeting has also been the frame for the presentation of the SEA gender equality plan, which includes measures to promote women researchersʼ presence and equal opportunities in the access and promotion within the professional world.
“The community of professional astronomers has had a successful and important growth since the seventies. We got and consolidated not only a distinguished role for our researchers around the world but also the participation of Spanish companies in the development of big infrastructures regarding astronomy”, said Figueras. The researcher made reference to the role of the woman in astronomy: “female astronomers, since the beginnings and during all this process, have fully participated in this collective effort thanks to the passion for astronomy and perseverance in our work”. At the end Francesca Figueras commented on some future challenges: “From the determination of the neutrino and its application on cosmological models to the total equal opportunity between men and women”. “We would like to achieve these short-term challenges and thatʼs why our post-doctorate and pre-doctorate young people are essential”, she said.
Francesca Figueras, expert in the study of galaxy evolution and structure, is member of the scientific team of the Gaia project at the University of Barcelona, which was awarded with Premi Ciutat de Barcelona 2013. Gaia is an emblematic mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), both for its capacity of stir future astrophysics up -thanks to the new astrometry observationsʼ precision- and for the technological challenge it involves. Moreover, the project shows the maxim model of a technology that places Europe in a leading position regarding astrometry from the space. The satellite Gaia, which was released on December 19, 2016 , has to make a 3D map of the Milky Way, with a wide catalogue of positions, distances, movements and other properties of the more than a thousand million stars.