Sara García Alonso, selected in November 2022 by the European Space Agency (ESA), among almost 23,000 candidates, for the class of astronauts of 2022 (as a reserve), thus becoming the first Spanish woman astronaut candidate, will offer a talk at the University of La Laguna (ULL) this Friday.
The appointment will be at 11:00 a.m. in the Aula Magna of the Aula General César Manrique on the Guajara campus and will be titled From childhood curiosity to the conquest of space: My journey in the STEM world.
In this inspiring talk, Sara Alonso will share her journey that, based on the curiosity she felt since she was a child, led her to pursue a profession linked to science and technology. Thus, she will talk about the doubts and reflections that arose in her mind when making the decision to choose and study a career and how to face academic challenges.
He will also share his experience while at the university, not only focused on his studies, but also on how his participation in associations, complementary training, work in laboratories and doing internships, contributed to finding his vocation, collects a note from the ULL.
The astronaut will continue with her decision to pursue a Ph.D. and dedicate herself to scientific research focused on cancer research. In addition, she will share her exciting experience of applying as an astronaut, recounting her selection process and how she has been preparing to face the challenges of space.
Sara Alonso studied Biotechnology at the University of León, where she graduated first in her class, obtaining two awards for academic excellence and continued her specialization at the same university, through a Master’s in Research.
During that period of time, he trained in different laboratories, such as the Livestock Development Institute or the Biomedicine Institute, both in León, as well as the National Biotechnology Center in Madrid.
Subsequently, he moved to the Cancer Research Center of Salamanca (2013-2018), where he received his doctorate cum laude in Molecular Biology of Cancer and Translational Medicine, obtaining the Extraordinary Doctorate Award for the best doctoral thesis in Medicine, from the University of Salamanca.
During his pre-doctoral stage, he worked on the identification of therapeutic targets and drug resistance mechanisms in different types of cancer, such as breast and ovarian cancer.
In 2019, she joined the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) as a postdoctoral researcher, first with a Juan de la Cierva Scholarship and later with a grant from the Spanish Association Against Cancer.
She is currently a staff researcher and leads a project to discover new drugs against lung and pancreatic cancer, in the laboratory of the Spanish biochemist Mariano Barbacid.
