The 2025 Cecilia Castaño Awards were presented at the UOC Science and Gender Awards Ceremony, held at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) last Friday (13 February). The Cecilia Castaño Awards aim to recognize outstanding research on gender inequalities in ICT and all STEM fields, specifically focusing on Master’s degree final projects and doctoral dissertations. Here are the winners of the 4rth edition:

Award for the best Master’s degree final project: Isabel Sanz Perela “La influencia del género en la enseñanza de las matemáticas en la enseñanza secundaria obligatoria: Una exploración y propuesta didáctica con la historia como eje de aprendizaje” [“The influence of gender on mathematics education in compulsory secondary education: An exploration and pedagogical proposal using history as a learning axis”].

In her work, Isabel Sanz Perela explores the relationship between gender and math education in secondary schools. She proposes a learning scenario centred on the history of two women who contributed to decoding the Enigma machine during World War II.

GenTIC director Milagros Sáinz handed the award to Isabel Sanz.

Award for the best doctoral thesis or article linked to a doctoral thesis: Erika García-Silva (GRIAL Research Group, University of Salamanca) “Diseño y validación de un modelo de mentoría interseccional para mujeres indígenas en STEM” [“Design and validation of an intersectional mentoring model for Indigenous women in STEM”].

Cecilia Castaño presented the award to Erika García.

Erika García-Silva’s research addresses the exclusion of Indigenous, Afro-American, and rural women from STEM fields, and validates a mentoring model built on an intersectional gender perspective tailored to local contexts. Erika García-Silva explained the motivations and main findings of her doctoral research in a recent interview at UOC News: “Practices persist that discourage Indigenous women from pursuing STEM careers”, and in the video below:

The ceremony was hosted by Cristina Sáez Torres, a journalist specializing in science and health and coordinator of the science supplement for Diari ARA. In her opening remarks, marking the 25th anniversary of the first human genome sequence draft in 2026, she revisited the history of the women who laid the foundations of DNA and genomics research. Cristina Sáez highlighted figures like Rosalind Franklin and Barbara McClintock for their essential contributions, which often lacked the recognition granted to their male colleagues.

The event also featured an insightful conversation of Cristina Sáez with two previous winners: Izaskun Zuazu (2022 Cecilia Castaño First Prize) and Mercè Pascual Oroñez (2023 Gender Perspective Thesis Award), who reflected on their research topics and how these issues have evolved in recent years.

Have a look at the photo album of the UOC Science and Gender Awards ceremony below. Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to everyone who joined us for this special event.