The first women who opened the way in Chile - El Mercurio

This scientific and academic of the eighth Region was formed in public schools and became an eminence in the field of crystallography.

Born in Talcahuano and daughter of a couple of teachers, Hilda Cid arrived to study in one of the most important academic centers of the world. Its commitment to science led her to improve in the United States: in 1964, Hilda Cid - married and mother of three children - was the first Chilean to obtain a doctorate in exact sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Boston.

Hilda went a long way. He studied at school No. 7 and no. 8 in Talcahuano and completed his studies at the Liceo Prosecutor in the same city. In 1951, he joined the University of Concepción, where he was the best of his generation and later moved to Santiago to continue his studies. At the end of the 50 graduating as a teacher of physics and mathematics at the Pedagogical Institute of the University of Chile and three years later, along with Isabel Garaycochea, published the first paper in your area signed by two women.

After his doctorate in Boston, Hilda returned to Chile and formed a team of academics and researchers in the field of crystallography, a novel and little explored area. And later went to the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia, where he began to work in the field of Biophysics.

"Hilda Cid is a rare human being. A great scientist; a large South American scientist; a socially committed person", it said the academic of the University of Chile Gonzalo Gutierrez in the article" Hilda Cid: physicist, crystallographer, structural Biologist ".

In 1974, the career of Hilda in Chile was interrupted. With her husband, then Dean of the Faculty of Sciences in Valdivia, was exonerated of the University, and they departed to exile in Sweden. There, Hilda joined the laboratory of protein of Wallenberg from Uppsala University, until in 1979 he returned to the country. His son major, Rodrigo Dresdner, recalls:

-In spite of his political stance was recontratada on their academic merits, at the University of Concepción. There was always respected and admired, both for its academic scrolls as well as his attitude with the democratic values.

Today, Hilda Cid is 84 years old. His eldest son sums up part of his legacy: "Unintentionally, demonstrated that women are as more able than men to perform successfully in fields in high scientific research". *

Source:www.economiaynegocios.cl