Nobel laureates and honorary academicians Ada Yonath and Jerome Friedman urge young women to enter the world of research
Ada Yonath, Nobel Prize in Chemistry and honorary academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), and Jerome Friedman, Nobel Prize in Physics and also honorary member of the RAED, encouraged the students who inaugurated the “100tífiques” project, organized by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation with the support of the Royal Academy, to comply with her scientific vocation without the simple fact of being a woman being an added difficulty for it. 
The event was held in Barcelona on February 11, International Day of Women and Girls in Science, within the framework of the Biennial of City and Science organized by the City Council of the Catalan capital. The RAED was represented by José Ramón Calvo, full academician and president of its Institute of International Cooperation, and Sònia Fernández-Vidal, scientific disseminator and also full academician. Both served as curators of this initiative.
“If you have questions to ask and science can answer them, don’t hesitate and don’t ask for permission: get to investigate”, Yonath said to the young women.
Friedman, for his part, encouraged future researchers to ensure that “science needs more bright women” and urged them to fulfil their scientific vocation. Calvo pointed out that one of the main challenges in which the Academy is working with special dedication in recent years is to give visibility to women scientists, who are an example for the new generations. “The RAED is organizing academic debates and days of dissemination of women in science and research, fundamental for the progress of our society”, he said.
The event was held at the Josep Bota Space in Barcelona and attended by 250 first and second-year students from the Martí i Pous High School of Barcelona and Year Six pupils from the Can Fabra School, also in Barcelona. The introduction was made by Núria Montserrat, group leader researcher at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia and curator of the Biennal of City and Science. “100tífiques” aims to give visibility to the relevance of women in science and technology, both in public and private research, and especially motivate girls, but also children in general, to study science and technology. Yonath was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for her discovery of the structure of ribosomes, while Jerome Friedman won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1990 for his discovery of the structure of atomic nuclei and the function of quarks.
See press release in ANIS
