Participants, who came from Castro Urdiales and Cádiz, met the researcher, her work during the pandemic and visited institute's facilities
June 22nd, 2021
Clara Prats, PhD in Physics and researcher of the Computational Biology and Complex Systems Group of the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña (UPC), visited IFCA (CSIC-UC) on Tuesday to meet the winners: Julieta Halicki Madariaga, Santiago Quiceno Vargas, from IES Ataúlfo Argenta de Castro Urdiales and Mencía Fernández de la Riva, from Colegio Grazalema de Cádiz; and has offered them a talk at the center, on the occasion of IFCA's comic contest "Científicas en Lucha contra la Covid-19", framed in the program 'Cuenta la ciencia' with the Fundación General CSIC (FGCSIC) and the Real Sociedad Española de Física (RSEF)'s support.
In this way, Prats showed the girls her work before, during and after the pandemic, based on the development of computational models of infectious diseases, talked to them about the role of women in science and sent a message of encouragement to continue fighting "in any field you work in, not only in science". Prats and the participants also took the opportunity to see up close IFCA's facilities such as the Altamira Supercomputer (CPD), Athena mission's operation or coronavirus research carried out by the institute. At the end of the day, they were given a school agenda that Clara Prats wanted to sign as a gift of the visit.
Participants with Clara Prats, at Altamira CPD
Científicas en lucha
Last February, IFCA announced the names of the comic contest's winners, which is now in its fourth edition. On this occasion, contest was held with the challenge of coronavirus in the background, for that reason the theme was dedicated to women scientists, researchers or workers who have fought against Covid-19 pandemic.
Following this premise, participating students had to tell, in a maximum of 20 vignettes, the research work against Covid-19 of a scientist, or any anecdote or testimony related to coronavirus's research with a woman as protagonist. The aim of this initiative is to bring children closer to female figures who carry out their professional work in hospitals, laboratories or from their homes teleworking, in the midst of the health crisis.
On this occasion, it was decided that the prize would be an opportunity to meet and chat with the female scientists featured in the winning comics at the IFCA, and to take advantage of the trip to visit the center and meet the research team. Clara Prats is, in fact, the protagonist of one of winning works.
Clara Prats in the talk given at IFCA
Biocomsc Group
The Catalan scientist teaches in the Department of Physics at the UPC and carries out her research work in the Computational Biology and Complex Systems group (BIOCOM-SC) of the same university in Castelldefels, where she is based.
During pandemic, Prats, along with other scientists, warned of the need for detailed population data on COVID-19 in Spain. Therefore, his research group has developed computer models, such as the risk of resurgence or diagrams showing the daily evolution of epidemic, which have been key to control transmission of the virus in Catalonia throughout last summer at the height of the wave, and also in Spain thanks to their predictions.
Prats' main research interests are computational models in tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, and the study and simulation of bacterial cultures and other microbial systems. Prior to virus's arrival, the scientist has focused her work for ten years on tuberculosis, collaborating with the Germans Trias i Pujol Institute in Barcelona.
