On Women’s Day, the prestigious Nature magazine highlighted Argentine scientist Sandra Diaz

in it International Women’s Daythe editorial of the prestigious magazine nature Spotlight on the Argentine world Sandra Diazwith five others researchers from other countries of the world.

Dr. Diaz works as an ecologist at the National University of Córdoba and conical In the Argentina. She is one of the leaders IBPESThe intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

According to the magazine, “Diaz wants to pay tribute to women as being Scientific leaders“In the context of the International Day. Although they do not represent nearly half of the researchers who run large laboratories or win major prizes, women are increasingly realizing that they can be at the forefront of discovery and knowledge production,” said the researcher.

She also highlights that “more and more women are taking on leadership roles when it comes to proposing disruptive ideas, heading up truly risky science projects, or directing large science policy assemblies.”

For a scientist, the younger ones are “learning, for a woman, that pursuing a scientific career does not necessarily mean working in the shadows as followers” of other researchers.

publisher nature He noted that International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8 every year, aims to draw attention to women’s achievements and the struggle for gender equality. Although it has its critics. Some see it as “an opportunity for organizations to put a front on change by taking pictures, others say, or to load the overburdened women in their organizations with more duties.”

But – as the editorial said – those who criticize World Day activities “are wrong. You have to raise awareness. On average, women scientists continue to publish fewer numbers and receive fewer grants and promotions than men. Harassment, attacks and marginalization drive promising researchers away from science, Especially those whose race, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation make them targets of discrimination.”

The editorial added that activism and action “can lead to change, if it can change systems that have oppressed non-male researchers for so long. Part of that goal is to make the population aware of what is possible if barriers are broken.”

At first, Argentine biologist Sandra Diaz had questions that challenged her from a young age and were not politically correct. It was the questions that happily annoyed her and made her investigate to find out the answer.

In 2019, Diaz won the Bunge y Born Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement. It was determined by a jury made up of national and international experts, chaired by eminent researcher in ecology, Osvaldo Sala, from Arizona State University in the United States.

Also in the same year, she was awarded the Princess of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research for her studies in plant biology and the impact of the climate crisis.

The Argentine scientist challenged what was once one of the central tenets of twentieth-century ecology. In March last year, Science invited her to write this week’s editorial. There he asserted that decisions made on the basis of environmental reports should override the scientists who developed them and those who should implement public policies.

He stated that the concept of “biodiversity” includes not only the many species that live on the planet, but also the relationship between humans and the rest of living beings and even between different places and peoples, through the bodies of living beings.

Therefore, the idea of ​​”biodiversity” or “nature” as something separate from humans is not just a product of misunderstanding, but rather one supported by scientific definitions, metaphors, and social narratives that have historically prevailed.

According to Diaz, showing biodiversity in all these aspects as a “fabric of life” is a way of showing how people are “intertwined” or “intertwined” with the rest of the organisms living on the planet, and how humanity is related to them. And how dependent on them financially and culturally.

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