An expert on your field

If someone asked me for a person that inspires me in my journey to be a biochemist, I would like to talk about Margarita Salas. She was born in 1938 in Spain and died in her homeland last year, after a life of struggle and prolific investigation. She came from a family of intellectuals, having their full support, and she took that opportunity and made use of it to full extent, never stopping in his selfimprovement and great contribution to science.

As one could imagine knowing that she was a woman born in the last century, she faced great discrimination in her field, something that even her husband hated. However, she would never surrender and today she and her own merits are recognized and praised worldwide.

In the 60s, her pre and postdoctoral worked included thesis on how the human body read and processed genetic information in protein synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism. Since then, she had many awards and discoveries. The most famous one is the use of phi29 DNA polymerase to analyze in great detail the human DNA, as if it was an amplified image of the whole structure. In her own words, her focus was in fundamental or basic science, always collecting data that would be beneficial for many purposes and fields.

I admire her not only because she fought against unjust social norms, but because she was succesful beyond all expectation. She excelled and never gave up, not even in her final moments of life. She dedicated her life to science and in that way, to all of humanity. No obstacle was too much for her and her commitment to science. That's a life philosophy that I want to follow.