2019_02_11_MUSEO_CIE_mujer_ciencia

The Science Museum of the University of Navarra has promoted the project "Women in science", whose goal is to provide society and, in particular, girls who want to follow a scientific degree program , with female references. It is an animated series that narrates, through small videos and in an informative tone, the biography of relevant female scientists in their field but who are unknown to the general public.

This is the case of Alice Catherine Evans, the first woman to preside the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in 1928, whose scientific findings set an example in her specialization program. Evans - the first woman to graduate as a specialist in Bacteriology in 1909 at Cornell University (New York) - managed to discover the relationship between the management of cattle on U.S. farms and the high percentage of abortions and deaths of cattle, as well as the leave milk production due to the presence of Brucella bacteria.

Evans also developed protocols for the pasteurization of milk and led a campaign to publicize them to farmers, dairy product manufacturers, etc. Thanks to these protocols, the number of cases of brucellosis on U.S. farms dropped significantly and their milk production multiplied. Finally, he obtained the honorary doctor by the Wilson College of Pennsylvania and by the University of Wisconsin, becoming an example and model for many microbiologists.

Biochemistry teacher and draftsman

This project, promoted by the Science Museum of the University of Navarra in its purpose to communicate, educate and disseminate science, is a partnership between the professor of Biochemistry of the academic center Iñigo Izal Azcárate -author of the drawings- and Ignacio López-Goñi, Full Professor of Microbiology and co-author of the script of this first video.

"The celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science has been the perfect framework to present this initiative that aims to provide both girls and boys, and also adults, female scientists who made history in their fields on their own merits, and that can serve as a spur and mirror for future scientists to have examples to follow," explains Ignacio López-Goñi, also director of the Science Museum.