From left to right: Carmen Simón (Director of Postgrado CSIC), Ana Torres Agulló, and José María Martell (CSIC Vice-president for Scientific and Technical Research) / CSIC
The IDAEA predoctoral researcher Ana Torres Agulló, from the Chemometrics for Environmental Omics group, is one of the eleven winners of the fifth edition of “Yo investigo. Yo soy CSIC” dissemination contest, in which PhD students present their work and results of their doctoral thesis to a non-specialized public using simple and accessible language through a three-minute video. All the eleven winners received their awards at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), in Madrid.
Torres Agulló studies the presence of microplastics in different indoor and outdoor environments, under the supervision of IDAEA researchers Sílvia Lacorte and Angeliki Karanasiou. In her video, titled “Adiós a la purpurina (Goodbye to glitter)” she explains the current situation of microplastic research and European legislation, as glitter with microplastic is not allowed to be sold anymore.
“For me, one of the objectives of the scientific research is to help people, that is, to achieve improvements in our quality of life, our health or our understanding of the world. Therefore, communicating your results is a way for people to understand your research and apply the most relevant conclusions that can benefit them in their daily lives. Furthermore, it is especially satisfying when interest in your results is generated among the general public and there is a real concern to understand the problem and try to find a solution.”, declares Ana Torres Agulló
She has not only won this dissemination contest, but also the last edition of IDAEA Young Researchers’ Day, in which the Organizing Committee awarded her for the best flash talk. In the International Conference in Chemistry and Environment, held in Copenhagen in 2023, she also won an award for the best poster, titled “Optimization and application of a pyrolysis-GC-Orbitrap method for the identification and quantification of microplastics in air”
“From my point of view, scientific dissemination plays a key role in the development of society, as it allows for the democratization of science. Misinformation and information overload are increasingly present in our daily lives, so scientific dissemination must be a tool that helps to convey the true advances of the scientific community and foster critical thinking“, explains Torres Agulló
Thanks to the prize received, she could do an internship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in the United States, to continue with her academical and professional development.
