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CATA Astronomer, Mónica Rubio, is awarded the Rector Juvenal Hernández Jaque Medal 2024

The astronomer and CATA researcher, Mónica Rubio, was recognized by the Universidad de Chile with the Rector Juvenal Hernández Jaque Medal, a distinction awarded by the university to graduates who have made outstanding contributions to the institution and the country.

Last Friday, January 3, Mónica Rubio, nationally distinguished astronomer and Associate Researcher at the Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies (CATA), was awarded by the University of Chile with the Rector Juvenal Hernández Jaque 2024 Medal, in the “Science and Technology” category. This distinction is awarded to graduates who have rendered distinguished services to the university and the country.

Professor Rubio is the winner of the National Prize in Exact Sciences 2021, PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Paris in France. She served as Director of the Astronomy Program (2007-2014), was Vice President of the National Council for Science and Technology (CONICYT) in 2019 and is currently Associate Researcher of our Center and Vice President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

She is also an expert in star formation and the study of molecular regions. She has lectured at international conferences in the United States, Europe, Japan and Latin America. During her scientific career, she has obtained more than 700 nights at observatories in Chile, also at the Hubble and Herschel space telescopes, and NASA’s SOFIA. Using the ALMA radio telescope, he discovered how dwarf galaxies form their new stars, a study published in the prestigious journal Nature and widely reported in the international press.

The academic expressed her gratitude for this recognition and for the role that CATA has played during the development of her career and research. “I am deeply grateful and honored to receive the Juvenal Hernández Jaque medal. Since my beginnings as a student and later as an academic, I have developed and dedicated my scientific career to this institution. Through projects such as CATA and the Fondecyt programs, I have been able to finance and support both scientific activities and the training of new generations of astronomers in the country. Being part of CATA has allowed me to complement these activities, which has been reflected in my contributions to astronomy both nationally and internationally,” she said.

The astronomer also explained the challenges that astronomy will face in the long term and the importance of the observatories dedicated to this work. “Astronomy in Chile has reached a remarkable level of maturity, with outstanding specialists throughout the country who have international recognition. The new era of giant telescopes, such as the ELT, the GMT, or radio telescopes like the Simmons Observatory, the CTA and, of course, the Vera Rubin telescope, whose operation begins this year, present new challenges”. In the same vein, Monica addressed how CATA, in its role as a promoter and creator of technology transfer, can be key in the demand for these challenges: “These instruments (observatories) demand additional capabilities in areas such as data science and the handling of large volumes of information. I see this as the biggest challenge for the future of our astronomy. Since the data will be publicly available, extracting the maximum knowledge from them will be crucial to maintain international leadership in the discipline. In this context, CATA has the potential to make a substantial contribution to sustain this,” she explained.