On the 11th of February, the Universidad Católica de Murcia (UCAM), in collaboration with CETENMA and ADCMurcia, is celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with several activities to encourage interest in STEM disciplines and to give visibility to the work of women researchers. The event, held on the Los Jerónimos Campus, includes a CENTENMA scientific loop, where 10 researchers take turns at 10-minute intervals to present their work and answer questions from the 100 students of the Cipriano Galea School in La Ñora. This dynamic seeks to awaken scientific vocations and foster the curiosity of the young students, who will also visit different laboratories at UCAM. 

The Asociación de Divulgación Científica de la Región de Murcia (Association for the Dissemination of Science in the Region of Murcia), in collaboration with the University, is offering a talk in the Assembly Hall with the online intervention of the scientist and entrepreneur Ana Maiques, co-founder of Neuroelectrics. Maiques is a leading figure in neuroscience applied to technology and has received several international awards, such as the EU Prize for Women Innovators from the European Commission, as well as having been nominated as one of the most influential Spanish entrepreneurs under 40 in 2010, European Woman Innovator of the Year in 2014, one of the most inspiring women in science in Europe in 2014 and one of the 75 leading women in Spain in 2016. Her career is a reflection of her commitment to equality in science and innovation. 

As part of this celebration, researcher Ana Belén Hernández Heredia, from the UCAM Research Group REM, took part yesterday in activities aimed at inspiring scientific vocations in students, organised by Lyceum (Association of Women Scientists of Murcia), sharing her research experience at the General Archive of Murcia with high school students. Today she also visited the Colegio de la Cruz in Totana, where she carried out educational experiments with primary school children to bring them closer to the world of research. With these initiatives, UCAM reinforces its commitment to the promotion of science and equal opportunities in the field of research. 

The Vice-Rector of Research, Estrella Núñez, stresses that ‘it is important that young people, both boys and girls, have accessible scientific role models with whom they can identify. To this end, it is very important to bring science closer to them and to enable them to hear, first-hand, the passion for knowledge that our young scientists transmit to them’.