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DAY OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SCIENCE: A VISION OF THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE ALBA SYNCHROTRON

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Headed by its director, the women at the ALBA Synchrotron are leading figures of the science that takes place in the scientific infrastructure. On the day that highlights the role of women in science, we reflect on the trajectory, projects and ideas of some of the women who are part of the ALBA Synchrotron.

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On the left, Judith Juanhuix. On the right, Caterina Biscari.

Cerdanyola del Vallès, 11 February 2021. Women represent 28% of ALBA's staff, with the Experiments and Administration areas having the most female presence. Regarding the types of positions, women represent 20% of the management team of ALBA, the figure of its director, Caterina Biscari, being noteworthy. On the other hand, women hold 41% of the positions of responsibility of ALBA (heads of sections and groups). This proportion also shows a slightly positive trend towards gender parity, considering that 3 years ago women in ALBA represented only 25%.

Thus, the distribution of staff encourages, but also shows the need to incorporate more and more women into the sector. The director of the ALBA Synchrotron, Caterina Biscari, argues, "The inequality of the lack of women in science must be balanced out". She points out that, "Although awareness of gender equality is now more evident, there are few women who reach positions of high responsibility." Judith Juanhuix, a doctor in physics and Head of the Biosciences Section at ALBA, states that the STEM movement, an acronym for the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, "not only has to overcome gender stereotypes and encourage the entry of women in science, but of all the diversity of women. We must enter into intersections to uncover various discriminations. "

 

Role models for future generations

The ALBA Synchrotron has powerful role models that filter through the gap that separates women and men in science and technology. On the one hand, its director, Caterina Biscari, graduated in physics from the Complutense University of Madrid (class of 1980). She worked at CERN, in Geneva, and at the Laboratorio Nazionale de Frascati of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, in Rome. "I was sure that I would choose the scientific field and I never had the feeling that I could not do it because of the fact that I am a woman”, she explains. From 2012 to the present, she is the director of the ALBA Synchrotron, an experience that she considers gratifying, as allows her "to have the privilege of leading a wonderful team and to be a role model for young women."

Judith Juanhuix specialized in solid state physics and semiconductors from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). After working at the European Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (ESRF), she designed the XALOC beamline in the gestation of the ALBA Synchrotron, as well as the new XAIRA beamline in 2019 currently under construction, - and is now section head and coordinator of the branch of Life Sciences. In her case, choosing physics is related to an internal reflective process: "I opted for physics because it encompasses everything - it is the basis and focuses on the essence - and it was also my refuge because I did not understand myself and I neither wanted to face it: I wanted to be a theoretical physicist to get further away from reality, "she explains.

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On the left, Ana Joaquina Pérez-Berná. On the right, Bárbara Machado Calisto.

Both biographies draw on influences: Juanhuix emphasizes Elena, the chemistry professor, and Pasqual, the biology professor. "They were very keen, as they not only explained how to solve a pH problem, but they linked it with possible applications and to other contextual issues. Thanks to my work experience I have been able to corroborate the broad vision of their classes: As I have been applying the beamline in specific scientific cases, I have seen how the same structures and mechanisms of life repeat themselves in different organisms. Now I would choose biochemistry because it is spectacular! There is an underlying order that brings me to the order I was looking for: universal laws that explain everything.” Biscari mentions his parents, "whose interest in culture, reading and commitment and dedication in every aspect of life had an impact on all the siblings in a natural way." Following this attitude, she states that "the scientific career is demanding and brings as many satisfactions as concerns because the experiments do not always turn out as you expect. There are times of difficulty in which you must fight to solve a problem, but it is rewarding”.

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On the left, Inma Martínez Rovira. On the right, Trinitat Pradell.

The handicap of the lack of girls in science and technology reveals stereotypes and beliefs associated with these disciplines mentioned above. Biscari adds that physics is still conceptualized according to the imaginary of the genius - attributed to Einstein - of a world that is not real: "although it is a science seen from a selfish perspective on the basis of an individual curiosity - as it happened to me-, then it is not like that, since without physics there are no advances in medicine, computer science or robotics, among others ". In the real world, the task of female researchers is gaining ground in the creative space and shows that physics is also useful for developing drugs or new therapies and even for studying the color of a work of art.

The synchrotron light that ALBA produces allows to carry out experiments with applications in many areas of science: such as biology, chemistry, environmental sciences or nanotechnology. Currently it also plays an important role in the research against Covid-19, joining the international effort to face the pandemic. ALBA offers very advanced instrumentation in order to study the coronavirus and its infection process, such as the MISTRAL beamline, an X-ray Transmission Microscope only available at ALBA and at three other synchrotrons in the world. The researchers who make use of it, Ana Joaquina Pérez-Berná and Eva Pereiro, are collaborating with Pablo Gastaminza from the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología – CSIC in the analysis of cells infected by human pathogenic viruses, including SARS-2 - the causal agent of Covid-19 - for developing possible treatments.

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On the left, Nerea Bernardo. On the right, Sara Marina.

Pérez-Berná also led a research project in which she observed how drugs reverse alterations in Hepatitis C- infected cells. Another research in biomedicine is the one carried out by Bárbara Calisto, also a scientist at ALBA, who has recently analyzed how the Tsé-Tsé fly might also save lives, since the replication in the laboratory of a molecule of this animal can serve as an anticoagulant drug. Other ALBA researchers, Nerea Bernardo and Inmaculada Martínez, have carried out studies, firstly, in order to reveal a mechanism involved in bacterial conjugation that has implications for increasing resistance to antibiotics and, secondly, with the aim to reveal the biochemical effects involved in nanoparticle-based radiotherapy.

Likewise, a research team from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia led by the user Trinitat Pradell has revealed why the stained glass windows of Catalan Modernism deteriorate, as an example of the applications of ALBA in the study of artistic heritage. In the field of energy, Sara Marina, a doctoral student at the University of the Basque Country, has carried out experiments at ALBA with the goal of obtaining more efficient organic solar cells.

The ALBA Synchrotron moves towards ALBA II, a fourth-generation infrastructure that will address, with advanced technology, current challenges with a future perspective. A very ambitious project that will require the talent of everyone, both men and women.

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