IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast (GWB2021)

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) organized last 9 February the Global Women Breakfast (GWB) initiative under the motto: “Empowering Diversity in Science”. For more information, please visit this link:

https://iupac.org/gwb/information/

Considering that very few women reach top academic positions, there is often a lack of positive role models that can inspire young generations and bridge the gender gap in science and technology. Therefore, the i-RTG ParSciTech of the CRC1411 “Design of Particulate Products” was glad to take active part in the GWB 2021 and connect with Prof. Luisa Torsi for an informal chat with PhD candidates and students.

The meeting took place via zoom in a relaxed atmosphere that promoted open discussion between the participants. It was a great inspiration for our PhD candidates and students to talk with Luisa in occasion of the IUPAC Global Women Breakfast 2021!

Professor Luisa Torsi received her Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences from the University of Bari in 1993. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Bell Laboratories from 1994 to 1996 and between 2005 and 2006 was an invited professor at the University of Angers and Paris VII. She has been a full professor of chemistry at the University of Bari since 2005, and from 2017, appointed an adjunct professor at the Åbo Akademi University in Finland.

Prof. Torsi has authored more than 200 papers and has been awarded research funding of over €26 million in 13 years, comprising several European contracts as well as national and regional projects. She has delivered more than 170 invited lectures, including nearly 40 as plenary and keynote contributions at international conferences.

Prof. Torsi has won numerous significant accolades over her career, including notching up several firsts as a woman in science. In 2010, she was awarded the Heinrich Emanuel Merck prize for analytical sciences; this marked the first time the award was given to a woman. She is also the immediate past president of the European Materials Research Society, again the first woman to serve in this role. Prof. Torsi received the 2015 Platinum prize of the Global-Women Inventors and Innovators Network at the British Library in London. In 2017, she was elected as a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, for her pioneering work in the field of organic (bio) electronic sensors and their use for point-of-care testing.

In 2019, she received the IUPAC “Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering” award. The analytical chemistry division of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) conferred on her the Robert Kellner Lecturer 2019.

Prof. Torsi is passionate about serving as a role model for younger women scientists. She has given several talks on this topic, including a TEDx talk, and was also a member of the National Board of the STAGES European project that aims at implementing strategies to trigger structural changes addressing issues connected with gender inequality in science.