Bruna Lima, a Master’s student in Engineering Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico, and student at the Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics (LIP) has won the IAEA Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme, which aims to increase the number of women involved in nuclear sciences.

“This is an extraordinary achievement, which I share with everyone involved in my academic and professional life”, says Bruna Lima. The student emphasises the support she has received from Técnico professors and researchers, fellow students and her family throughout her career. “My professional life is closely linked to my career at Técnico, in particular at the Department of Physics, which, through various circumstances, helped me to develop academic and professional skills”, she adds. The student also stresses the “very active teaching staff in their research work, which has been fundamental for career development”.

Bruna also emphasises the role of LIP in her achievement. She is currently collaborating in this research unit under the supervision of the Técnico professor Patrícia Gonçalves, and explains that LIP “allowed her to learn in the area of Medical Physics, within Nuclear and Particle Physics, which is pivotal to the award of this scholarship”.

Named after Marie Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist who won two Nobel Prizes, the programme aims to encourage women to pursue a career in nuclear physics, including funding for a master’s degree and participation in an internship with the support of the IAEA. Bruna Lima highlights the positive impact of the fellowship on her studies, and gives some examples of the opportunities it has brought – “on 7 and 8 March, I will be attending the first conference ‘For More Women in Nuclear: IAEA Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship and Lise Meitner Programmes’, organised by the IAEA”.

And since this is a fellowship for the promotion of gender equality, the student left a comment on society’s attitude towards women in science. “Although there has been a long evolution since the time of Marie Skłodowska-Curie, there are still many stigmas that need to be broken. I recognise that the Department of Physics has been exemplary in integrating women into the field, particularly the female students who join the course every year, but the work has to start earlier, before they enter university”, says Bruna. “These initiatives are fundamental, not only to highlight the female scientists we have in our country, but also to motivate young scientists to pursue these areas with the certainty that they will be welcomed.”