2020_02_11_TAN_perez_montero

Two million people have retinitis in Spain. It is a degenerative disease and those affected can suffer from it at different Degrees, as it consists of a gradual loss of sight. Enrique Pérez Montero suffers from this disease and, as he explains, "losing his sight has opened doors for him", as he has turned his disadvantage into an advantage.

He is a scientist and blind, he studies stars and galaxies. He cannot look at the sky, but, as he explains, science is about understanding how nature works, not just contemplating it.

The astrophysicist participated in the second session of Tantaka 's Training to Understand Disability series at the University of Navarra. Before an audience surprised by his statements, he explained how the eyes can sometimes be a problem for the research: people who think that the Earth is flat, those who believe that the Moon and the Sun are the same size, those who say that the Sun revolves around the Earth... all of them are based on what their senses tell them, but to do science sometimes it is important to transcend them. In addition, "the human eye can only see 99% of what happens in the Universe, so the observational limitation is for all scientists who study galaxies," explained Pérez Montero.

Being an astrophysicist without sight has limitations and difficulties, especially when it comes to being taken into account in the profession or in the field of research. Enrique Pérez tries to break down prejudices and bring astrophysics closer to blind people. He is at project Astroaccesible, from where he defends the right of everyone to participate in scientific progress, whatever their status, and the knowledge dissemination accessible.

To close his lecture, he reminded the audience of the importance of having diverse teams in the groups of work, in order to have several perspectives to improve productivity.