Professor Evgenia Spodine received Prize Amanda Labarca 2017
In a ceremony held this Friday, March 9 in the Eloísa Díaz Room of the Central House, the academic of the Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry of the Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Professor of the University of Chile since 1989, Evgenia Spodine, received the recognition given by our institution to women who stand out for their careers and commitment to the service of the country.
Evgenia Spodine: "today there is a different way of seeing the woman"
Part of the first generation of the Chemistry Career in our campus, and academic of the University of Chile for 28 years, Professor Evgenia Spodine is an authority in her area. More than 162 publications in ISI journals, with more than 1800 citations, and more than 60 articles indexed only in the last decade endorse the respect it has obtained both in our country and abroad.
It is in view of her forceful contribution to the development of knowledge that the University of Chile awarded her the Amanda Labarca Award 2017, an award that the academic thanked stating that she felt "honored to participate in this ceremony making present in my soul the memory of that extraordinary woman who was Amanda Labarca. And this memory is doubly significant when this ceremony takes place during the first week of March where Women's Day is commemorated."
In her speech, Professor Spodine recalled the life and work of the person who gives her name to the award, her academic career and her feminist commitment, defended that education, including that of a higher nature, should be a social right, and highlighted the contribution that women make to the country every day.
María Angélica Figueroa, Amanda Labarca Award 2016, reviewed the career of Professor Spodine and described her as a leading academic, whose work, she emphasized, has generated important contributions for the country.
Along with this, Professor Figueroa highlighted her life trajectory, marked by her birth in Paris, France, in the bosom of a Russian family emigrated in 1918, arriving in Chile five years after the Second World War, and by the prejudices she had to face when starting her university and academic life.
"Like many of the women who have studied and worked at this University, Professor Spodine remembers the expressions of rejection with which we students were usually received as part of the prevailing environment at that stage, regarding the study and work of women," said Figueroa, which did not prevent her from finding wide academic reception soon. later getting his doctorate and research in Chile and abroad.
Speech by Professor María Angélica Figueroa, Amanda Labarca Award 2016.
After presenting her with the medal that symbolizes this decoration, the Rector of the University of Chile, Ennio Vivaldi, valued the contribution that Professor Spodine has made to the country and the University, and denounced the difficulties that women have had to face when developing professionally in the country.
"We are paying tribute to people who, because they were women, prejudice weighed on them, were discriminated against, they were given greater problems, when they had to face the care of their children they were told to do it on their own but continue with your academic career, get your thesis. In this context it is evident that the success achieved by women in professional life is especially remarkable and we want to highlight that with this award, "added the Rector.
The outstanding academic and researcher was accompanied by family, friends, colleagues and the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Amanda Labarca, in a ceremony in which the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs (s), Leonor Armanet; the Vice-Rector for Extension and Communications, Faride Zeran; the dean of the Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Arturo Squella, the dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation and Amanda Labarca Award, Carmen Luz de la Maza; the dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Marcela Pizzi; the dean of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Patricio Aceituno; the national awards María Teresa Ruiz and Fernando Lund, the academic Emma Salas, the vice-dean of the Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Javier Puente, as well as members of the University Senate.
Speech by Professor Evgenia Spodine, Amanda Labarca Award 2017 (audio).
Speech by Professor Evgenia Spodine, Amanda Larbarca Award 2017 (PDF).
About the prize
Amanda Labarca dedicated her life to the defense of women's rights and education in Chile. State professor with a mention in Spanish, she was the first academic of our University and of Latin America. Creator of the Seasonal Schools of our House of Studies, she also played a crucial role in the founding of the Liceo Manuel de Salas. In 1933 she participated in the founding of the National Committee for Women's Rights, and in 1946 she was appointed representative of Chile to the United Nations.
In March 2016, the Municipality of Santiago honored the educator and feminist with a street named after her near the Ministry of Education.
Currently, 38 academics from the University of Chile have received the Amanda Labarca Award, an award aimed at highlighting the personality and work of university women who have developed their profession with exceptional highlights or who stand out for their mastery of culture or in the service of their country.
The distinction consists of a silver disc, which on the obverse bears the effigy of Amanda Labarca with the surrounding legend "Condecoración al Mérito Amanda Labarca" and, on the reverse, the distinctive of the University of Chile. Applications can be submitted by the faculties and institutes of the University of Chile, as well as by women's organizations of a university nature.
Text: Felipe Ramirez, journalist Communications Directorate, Central House.
Photographs: Alejandra Fuenzalida
Press-UChile
More photos in www.uchile.cl
