Ciencia PR announced today that the Pfizer Operations in Puerto Rico, the IF / THEN initiative that promotes women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM, for its acronym in English) and the Ecoexploratorio : Museum of Sciences of Puerto Rico, come together to launch the series of online talks “Juntas Podemos”. These talks are intended to encourage middle and high school girls to pursue STEM careers.
 
The series consists of ten talks and each one features a Puerto Rican or Latin American, outstanding in a STEM field. The inaugural talk will take place on Wednesday, November 4 at 5 pm, and will be offered by Nanette Cocero, Puerto Rican pharmacologist and Global President of Pfizer's Vaccines Division and who leads the effort of this company to develop a vaccine against the COVID-19.
 
The series of talks will run until March 2021. The public will be able to enjoy the talks live and free of charge online through the Ecoexploratory's Facebook Live platform.
 
"We are delighted to collaborate with Ciencia PR in this important initiative to develop our future scientists", says Blanca Cebollero, Communications Manager for Pfizer in PR, "Supporting" Juntas Podemos "has a special meaning because in our manufacturing plants we have female scientists who collaborate directly with the project. The fact that Dr. Cocero has been invited to give the inaugural talk fills us with pride and great satisfaction. Given the current context, future Puerto Rican scientists will be able to hear the testimony of another Puerto Rican scientist in a vital role, when the world has its eyes set on science. "
 
Other Puerto Rican women who will be part of Juntas Podemos are the electrical engineer Marissa Morales, recently awarded as one of the 100 best scientists of 2020, the neurobiologist and scientific communicator, Mónica Feliú Mójer, the astrophysicist Wanda Díaz Merced and the car racing engineer, Alba Colón. Also joining the list of inspiring women is a group of IF / THEN ambassadors, which includes Mexican physicist and communicator Deborah Berebichez, Guyanese biostatistician, Davina Durgana, and Colombian Ana María Porras, who stands out as a bioengineer. The group is completed by the Chilean paleontologist Karen Moreno, who documented the oldest known human footprint on the American continent, and the Colombian computer scientist, Clara Mosquera.
 
“At this historic point that we are at, we need to be an inspirational body and a hub of informal educational opportunities for our future scientists in order to empower them through powerful virtual education. That is why with this initiative and through our digital platform of Virtual Science, we are connecting scientists from different parts of the world to provide educational access to children, youth, educators, and the general public in order to provide great learning opportunities that are remote and free of cost. We want to promote the continuity of scientific and technological education that is essential to sustain the pillars of economic development, health, and the environment in our society, in order to be an example for other entities around the world ”, indicated Jenny M. Guevara, executive director of the EcoExploratorio, Inc.
 
The series of talks Juntas Podemos is one of the initiatives of the STEM ambassador program led by CienciaPR called Semillas de Triunfo: IF / THEN Edition, in which 121 girls from Puerto Rico participate directly and hundreds more through various activities in line. The talks will be in Spanish and will offer the opportunity to learn about the stories and trajectories of these ten great women in the world of science.
 
“This new series of talks will help us expand the impact of Semillas de Triunfo to hundreds of Spanish-speaking youth around the world, who will be able to meet and interact with inspiring STEM professionals working in a variety of fields and disciplines. In this way, we seek to break down stereotypes that affect science,” concluded Dr. Giovanna Guerrero Medina, Executive Director of CienciaPR.
 
The schedule of talks can be accessed through https://www.cienciapr.org/en/semillas-de-triunfo-juntas-podemos