The UB commemorates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science
The UB is commemorating on February 11, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, with a range of activities presented in this website. Among them is the debate “I want to be a scientist”, in which girls will participate and UB female scientists will talk about their ongoing research, and there is the exhibition “Dones singulars”, which takes back the figure of female engineers, inventors of objects that improved our daily lives. This year, the poster made of drawings and texts by the primary education students shares all these proposals by the University of Barcelona.
The UB is commemorating on February 11, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, with a range of activities presented in this website. Among them is the debate “I want to be a scientist”, in which girls will participate and UB female scientists will talk about their ongoing research, and there is the exhibition “Dones singulars”, which takes back the figure of female engineers, inventors of objects that improved our daily lives. This year, the poster made of drawings and texts by the primary education students shares all these proposals by the University of Barcelona.
I want to be a scientist
The debate “I want to be a scientist” will take place on February 11, at 12 noon, in the Chapel room and will be live-streamed by UBtv. Alba, Elsa, Júlia and Laia, aged 16, 10, 12 and 10 respectively, will ask some questions about the woman in the world of research and the work of current female scientists. The ones to answer these questions will be the UB researchers Anna Sancho Balsells, who has been working for three years on a doctoral thesis in the field of neurosciences; the Serra-Hunter professor Maria Rodó Zárate, who focuses her research on social inequalities from an intersectional, spatial and emotional perspective, and Isabel Cacho Lascorz, professor at the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics, who studies the interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean, mainly in the Mediterranean region, but also in the equatorial Pacific and the Atlantic, always taking into account its effects on the carbon cycle. The debate will be chaired by the rectorʼs delegate for scientific dissemination, Gemma Margany. The initiative, organized by the Vice-rectorʼs Office of Research and the Vice-rectorʼs Office for Equal Opportunities and Gender, aims to promote the visibility of female scientists and help so that young girls have female role models in the field of research.
#100tíficas and unique women
On February 4, the UB presented the project #100tíficas. This initiative gathers 150 female researchers who, on February 11, will give lectures in more than 400 schools in Catalonia. About forty researchers of the UB will take part this year in this proposal by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST). The presentation at the UB counted with the participation of the rector, Joan Guàrdia; the president of BIST, Andreu Mas-Colell; the minister for Education of the Catalan Government, Josep González-Cambray; and the minister for Research and Universities, Gemma Geis. The linguist of the University of Barcelona, Carme Junyent, gave the opening lecture.
The gallery of the Paranimph is holding the exhibition “Dones singulars”, by the artist Sandra Uve. The exhibition gives a name and surname to female engineers who played an essential role in the invention of devices we use daily, ranging from an oven or the dishwasher to the coffee filters or electric coffee machines. The exhibition, organized by the Vice-rectorʼs Office for Heritage and Cultural Activities and the Vice-rectorʼs Office for Equal Opportunities and Gender, will be available until the International Womenʼs Day, March 8.
From girls to female scientists
The series of activities organized by the different UB centers on the occasion of the International Day of Girls and Women in Science are available in this website. To share all these activities, the University of Barcelona is presenting a poster with all the wining proposals of the contest De nenes a científiques, promoted by the Rectorʼs Delegate for Scientific Dissemination and coordinated by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+i). More than forty schools from different Catalan cities have participated. The students watched a video in which five UB scientists tell primary education students about their experience. Afterwards, the kids wrote and draw proposals to end with inequalities between men and women in the field of research. The winners were those from the Emili Juncadella school in Barcelona, and Petit Plançó school in Olot.
Esther Marin, teacher at Emili Juncadella, values the participation in this project: “now, boys and girls know that the science field is for everyone and that it can be an option if they like it”. Carme Plangumà, from the Petit Plançó school, says that the children worked on the biography of several women and used this activity to start a debate in class. "From girls to scientists" counts on the support from the Ministry of Science and Innovation - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology.
The poster for next yearʼs activities will result from the second edition of this contest, which will begin this February. Also, on February 11, another competition organized by the UCC+I will take place, but this one is aimed to UB female researchers, and it will be carried out on Instagram.