Although mathematics has been an area historically dominated by men, there is a group of Chilean women who are contributing and have made interesting contributions to this science for Chile and the world. These are some of the most outstanding.
Anahí Gajardo Schulz
He studied Engineering at the Universidad de Chile and later did a PhD at the same institution in co-supervision with the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France. Subsequently, he completed a postdoctorate at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.
Since 2002, he has been working at the Universidad de Concepción, where he is dedicated to research on the dynamics of Turing Machines and Cellular Automata, including studies on Langton's Ant and the SMART Machine. In addition to his research work, he teaches in different years and careers, and in recent years has promoted the dissemination of mathematics, connecting it with art.
She is the granddaughter of Justicia Espada Acuña (1893-1980), the first female engineer in Chile and the second in South America, who graduated in 1919 from the University of Chile. This family legacy has been a source of inspiration in her career, motivating her to continue opening paths for women in science and technology. "I grew up knowing that women have the same capabilities as men, and that gave me enormous strength," said Anahí Gajardo.
"In Chile there are many outstanding women, whose passion for mathematics has led them to generate very advanced knowledge, who have the strength to stand firm in a very masculinized world, and also have the generosity to devote their scarce time to support other women to develop their careers in mathematics," she concluded.
Salome Martinez
Director of the Education Laboratory of the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM). Civil Mathematical Engineer from the University of Chile and PhD in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota in the United States. Professor at the University of Chile, member of the Department of Mathematical Engineering and member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences.
He has led a line of work with national and international impact on the training of mathematics teachers. This work has been characterized by its innovative character, the generation of collaborative networks, and the creation of multidisciplinary teams.
Her work in education has been recognized nationally and internationally, particularly through the UNESCO Chair "Teacher Education for Teaching Mathematics in the 21st Century", and the UNESCO-Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prize for Outstanding Practice and Performance for Improving Teacher Effectiveness (2017-2018), awarded to the Suma y Sigue program.
His fundamental research in mathematics has been focused on the study of reaction-diffusion systems, highlighting his essential contributions in the study of non-local dispersion, which have impacted the development in this area and contributed to the understanding of relevant phenomena in mathematical ecology, such as the evolution of dispersion. He has published his work in leading journals in the area, producing relevant articles that have been highly cited.
Leslie Jimenez Palma
Academic of the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Chile and coordinator of the mathematical area of the Pedagogy in Secondary Education in Mathematics and Physics of the same University.
After having dedicated several years to pure mathematics, he became interested in the world of education. He researches in the area of mathematics didactics, working with the concept of visualization and with the theoretical framework of mathematical workspaces.
In parallel to her academic work, Leslie Jiménez carries out various mathematics communication activities. She is co-creator of the podcast "Con la suma de todas las fuerzas" (@sumafuerzas) and the Instagram "Ojo piojo con la visualización matemática" (@visualizacion_matematica), member of the collective Mujeres Matemáticas en Chile (@mujeres.matematicas.chile), the Latin American women's group Witral Ciencia (@witralciencia), and the Asociación Chilena de Periodistas y Profesionales por la Comunicación de la Ciencia (@achipec).
Maria Soledad Torres
Professor of Mathematics at the Catholic University of Valparaiso with a Master's degree and PhD in Engineering Sciences, mention in Mathematical Modeling from the University of Chile, with a high level of involvement in national and international research.
She has participated in several initiatives as principal and associate researcher, as well as scientific disseminator contributing from the academy to solve current problems. This, through the development of her main lines of work represented in Stochastic Processes, Statistical Inference and Stochastic Modeling in Biology.
Jessika Camaño
Degree in Mathematics from the Universidad de Concepción, Master in Mathematics and PhD in Applied Sciences with a major in Mathematical Engineering from the same university. She is an associate professor at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics.
He graduated with a PhD degree in June 2013 under the guidance of Professor Rodolfo Rodriguez (University of Concepción) and Professors Ana Alonso Rodriguez and Alberto Valli (both from the University of Trento, Italy), then doing a postdoc at the University of Concepción. In March 2014 he obtained the position of Assistant Professor at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, through a Conicyt Advanced Human Capital Insertion Project, and in 2017 the position of Assistant Professor. From 2020 to date he has been working in the category of Associate Professor.
She is principal investigator of the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the University of Chile and external associate researcher of CI2MA of the University of Concepción. Her line of research is in the numerical analysis of partial differential equations, which has led her to stand out both nationally and internationally.
Maya Stein
This Chilean-German woman holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Hamburg. She is a full professor at the Universidad de Chile and an academic in the Department of Mathematical Engineering. She is also principal investigator and deputy director of the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM), and Academic Director of the same unit.
He works in Combinatorics and Graph Theory, with a broad spectrum ranging from extremal and probabilistic graph and hypergraph theory to algorithmic topics.
He has more than 50 published articles to his credit, and has collaborated with more than 40 researchers worldwide. He leads and has participated in several international cooperation projects, and has supervised a large number of postdocs and students.
Her work is internationally recognized, and she is frequently called upon to speak at conferences and participate in workshops at centers of excellence. She serves on the program committees of the most important conferences in her field, and is editor of four international mathematics journals. She is a member of the scientific committee of the Chilean Mathematics Society (Somachi) and was deputy director of the ANID scholarship evaluation panel for mathematics.
Guacolda Antoine Lazzerini
One of the pioneers in the field in Chile was this outstanding mathematics professor who became the first female dean of the former State Technical University (UTE). She passed away in 2015, at the age of 107, and solved mathematical problems until the end, highlights her profile in Mujeres Bacanas.
She obtained a degree in Mathematics and Physics at the Instituto Pedagógico de la Universidad de Chile in 1928 and for the next three decades she taught mathematics at the Liceo José Victorino Lastarria (in Santiago), making her mark on many generations of students in Chile. At the same time, she taught for a season at the Instituto Superior de Comercio. In 1933 she was appointed assistant professor at the University of Chile and, in 1954, full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Education of the same university.
Between 1954 and 1958, she was secretary of the Teaching Council of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the Universidad Técnica del Estado, being elected president of the council - a position equivalent to that of dean - for the following four years. In 1953, she also participated in the founding of the Kent School. Between 1959 and 1968, she directed the Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Philosophy and Education of the University of Chile, and continued to teach in different educational establishments until 1985.
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