UCBM among the 12 Italian universities with the most STEM students
di Martina D'Onofrio
10 February 2022 - 246 years have passed since Laura Bassi - one of the first women graduates in Italy - was conferred the university chair in Experimental Physics at the Bologna Institute of Sciences. Today the women researchers in Italy are 46% and those with the qualification of full professor 25%, percentages that are lower respectively to 43% and 21% for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics area (data from USTAT, Ministry of University and Research), indicating that there is still much to be done to promote the full and equal participation of the female gender in science, education, training, employment and decision-making processes. Just as it invites you to do International day of women and girls in science, established by the UN on February 11th. A commitment that becomes both cultural and concrete for all Italian universities - women enrolled in scientific departments are 37% - and also for theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma which represents a happy exception: it is among the twelve Italian universities with the majority of females enrolled in STEM subjects. "Moreover, in Ucbm women are heads of Departmental Faculties, preside over half of the Degree Courses and represent a good percentage of the teaching staff – stated the teacher Simonetta Filippi, ordinary in Theoretical Physics and delegate of the Rector for the Gender Equality Plan. A team made up of all the components of our university (teachers, researchers, administrative staff, students) is working to implement an effective action for gender equality. A three-year strategic plan is being developed which, through corporate welfare interventions and monitoring of the state of equal opportunities, will tend to further improve the already high standards of our University".
The University participates in various initiatives within networks with companies, institutions and scientific partners: they range from participation in the digital events of the Unindustria network, as part of the national project 'STEAMiamoci' for the enhancement of female talents, to more 'vertical' conferences such as the one dedicated to the role of women in the development of sensors, promoted by the IEEE Sensors Council Italy Chapter with the interventions of Loredana Zollo, Marcella Trombetta (full professors of Bioengineering and Chemistry) and of Daniela Lo Presti, PhD in Biomedical Measurements and Instrumentation. Just Lo Presti, born in 1992, she also won the Sensor 2021 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award award for the development of state-of-the-art wearable sensors useful for monitoring respiratory and heart rate.
The students are even younger Gaia Dobici and Francesca Ronci, from the first year of Intelligent Systems Engineering, which with the conception of the startup SmartPharma – dedicated to facilitating the process of purchasing and using medicines – were among the finalists of the tender StartCup Lazio 2021 also conquering the Equal Opportunity Award for the best social enterprise project with a view to equal opportunities. But, like the numbers UCBM they tell us, there are also many others, every day, who take 'Science for Man' one step forward. And for women.
