Dra. Pilar Bayer
Pilar Bayer, Emeritus Professor at the University of Barcelona, founder of the Barcelona Number Theory Seminar, member of the Board of Governors of the Catalan Mathematical Society, and full member and Vice-President of the Experimental Sciences Section of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ), featured on 18 April on one of the coupons in the “Women in Science” series that the Spanish National Organisation of the Blind (ONCE) devotes to Spanish women researchers from various fields in its popular daily draw. Produced in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain, the series includes the image, name and discipline of these scientists on the five and a half million coupons sold throughout Spain.
Enric Botí, ONCE’s territorial delegate in Catalonia, and Maria de la Sierra López, Second Vice-President of ONCE’s Territorial Council in Catalonia, presented Bayer’s coupon together with Bayer herself, as well as that of the biologist and researcher at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute, Nuria López Bigas, whose coupon is dated 2 May. They were accompanied by Carlos Prieto, the Government Delegate in Catalonia, and Juan Lerma as representative of the Royal Academy of Sciences. Pilar Bayer was the second woman to join that institution in 1994, after the renowned biochemist Margarita Salas. In 2024 she received the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest honorary distinction awarded by the Government of Catalonia, in recognition of her extraordinary scientific career.
“These coupons seek to highlight the inspiring strength of women in science and their decisive contribution to discoveries that have transformed the everyday lives of all people in such important fields as health, technology and the environment,” explained Botí, who thanked the Academy for its involvement and drive in this project.
For his part, Prieto acknowledged ONCE’s double role, both as an inclusive institution and for its promotion of equality. “ONCE has shown, and Enric Botí personally, that one does not need sight in order to have vision. A vision that has taken them very far. And this recognition of women scientists is a great gesture that helps many girls to see that they have a place in the scientific field. As a result of this, more and more women in STEM professions, in mathematics or in science, are standing out through brilliant technological, biological or medical advances. It is only right to exalt the curricula of women who represent science so well,” he stated.
In a similar initiative, Bayer also featured in the #científicasCASIO campaign, lending her image to a scientific calculator produced by this renowned technology firm, thus joining an outreach project launched by the company’s Educational Division to give visibility to women researchers on the occasion of the International Day of Women in Mathematics. She was also one of the leading figures in the new family tourist routes based on mathematics and technology led by women and promoted by the Government of Catalonia; specifically, she is the image of the proposal for the city of Barcelona.
