Mercedes Prieto Muñoz, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and Professor at the University of La Laguna (ULL), received on March 8th in the Assembly Hall of the Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica Antonio González (UBO), the "IUEM 8th of March", prize which is awarded annually by the University Institute of Women's studies of the ULL.
This award is granted to female researchers of the ULL who have outstanding research records and in view of their contribution to women's advances in the fields of science and society. In the specific case of Mercedes Prieto, "for opening the way to the incorporation of women in astrophysics, which in its early days had a heavy preponderance of men". The other two prizewinners this year were Dolores Corbella Díaz, Professor of Philology in the ULL, and Carolina Mallol, Ramón y Cajal Fellow in Arqueology.
The Rector of the ULL, Antonio Martinón Cejas, presided over the award giving ceremony, and the award was presented by the Director of the Women in Science Unit of the Ministry of Economics and Competitivity, Ana Puy Rodríguez, the Director of University Institute of Women's studies, Inmaculada Perdomo, and Dulce González Doroste, representing the Universitary Institutes of Research. The Founding Director of the IAC, Francisco Sanchez gave the speech dedicated to the merits of Mercedes Prieto " a woman", he said, "dedicated to increasing our knowledge of our universe, whose enthusiasm has not waned during 40 years, tackling the unknown with curiosity, and not wilting faced with the challenges of the new pathways she has opened up".
Mercedes Prieto, a pioneer in astrophysics in the Canaries, is an expert in the formation and evolution of the galaxies. She arrived in the Canaries in 1975, and was the first woman observational astronomer in the islands, and only the second in Spain. With four decades of research and teaching behind her, she is still involved in scientific project, one of which is GOYA, a project to study the populations of galaxies in the epoch of maximum star formation rate in the universe, which will be carried out with the EMIR instrument, shortly to be installed on the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC), in the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, (La Palma).
Interview with Mercedes Prieto Muñoz en: http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&op2=402&id=102&lang=en
Press release of the ULL: https://ddigital.webs.ull.es/dolores-corbella-mercedes-prieto-y-carolin…
