Outreach

Dr. Hayde Peregrina, of INAOE, participates in the British Council's "Mentors in Science" program

Santa María Tonatzintla, Puebla, October 5, 2022. Dr. Hayde Peregrina Barreto, a researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE), has been selected to participate in the “Mentoras en la Ciencia”, program of the British Council.

The objective of the program is to train women scientists/researchers who are part of the National System of Researchers (SNI) as mentors, and provide them with tools that allow them to accompany young researchers in their professional careers and share good practices with them to reach leadership positions and access funding for research projects.

The British Council, a United Kingdom organization that promotes cultural relations and educational opportunities at an international level, recognizes the challenges faced by female scientists and researchers in Latin America, where gender gaps are present in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). This program seeks to reduce these gender gaps.

In an interview, Dr. Peregrina Barreto, who belongs to the INAOE Computer Science Coordination, reports that the program is divided into two stages: the first, lasting approximately three months, is the selection and training of the mentors, and in a second stage, the young women who will receive mentoring will be invited to participate. This second stage will last six months.

The INAOE researcher said that among the topics that will be covered in the mentoring are: gender equality in research, innovation and higher education; techniques to seek and obtain financing; strategies for publishing in high-impact academic journals; techniques to promote research; strengthen the path to becoming a principal investigator; enrich diversity in research, and how to deal with gender discrimination.

For Dr. Peregrina, participation in this program is important because it will allow her to help new researchers or those in training to develop skills such as writing an article or submitting a project for funding. "The idea is that we transmit this experience to girls who are studying a postgraduate degree or to recent graduates who aspire to enter the SNI."

She added that in this third call, the British Council accepted 60 mentors. “We are all going to receive training between now and December to be able to transmit more formal tools and concepts, and then each mentor will be assigned three students who we will follow up with for six months.”