Rosario physicist to receive UNESCO prize in Paris for her career

The physicist Rosario Karen Hallberg, who will be honored on March 14 in Paris at the L'Oréal-Unesco Awards by a group of five women from around the world, said that "there is more women missing in the field of science and technology ". being a researcher is an exciting career. "

"I think the most important message of this award is to encourage younger girls to be interested in mathematics, physics, or science in general, and to approach the world of research in this way." added the researcher, 54 years old and professor at the Balseiro Institute of Bariloche.

Married to a physicist and mother of Kevin, a 30-year-old resident of Zurich and Tania, a 26-year-old doctor, she is surprised by the distinction she has been awarded since 1998. "This is not a prize for which she is named. but it is given by an international committee headed by a Nobel Prize or a Fields Prize, which is the highest price in mathematics, equivalent to the Nobel Prize, "said the researcher.

The prize will be awarded on March 14 during the "Women's Week in Science and Technology" at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

Hallberg was born in Rosario, but her childhood and adolescence were lived in Jujuy, where she collected many friends and was a distinguished student of the National School 1 "Teodoro Sánchez de Bustamante". As a representative of this institution was crowned provincial queen of students. "It was wonderful to live this stage but the most precious thing and I save the most is the affection of the people of Jujuy," he said.

After graduating from the intermediate level, it was very clear that his future was science-related. That's why he applied and managed to join the famous Balseiro Institute, in Bariloche, where he studied physics and wrote the doctoral dissertation that allowed him to continue to progress in his vocation ("research", says today). Then he also got a post-doctorate in Germany. Back from Europe, he returned to settle in Bariloche with a position of Conicet.

Today, she works in a group as a researcher at the Atomic Center in Bariloche, which reports to the National Atomic Energy Commission, and heads the Condensed Matter Department.

The international award that will be awarded is "for the trajectory, not for a particular job, but for the sum of jobs and contributions," he said. Hallberg will be rewarded with an American mathematician, a European, an African chemist and another Asian chemist.

About the awards, they stated that "they alternate each year, one year in life sciences and another year in mathematics, physics, astronomy, computer science and chemistry".

Proud of her work team – "for us, science does not stand alone" – she stressed that together they had developed "a numerical calculation technique for calculating the properties of quantum levels, electronic and atomic, called condensed matter ".

He added: "These are special materials for superconductivity, which are very complex to study", so they "attack it from a numerical point of view" and the result is "a very precise digital counter that competes with international level ".

For this work, she was invited to speak at a world conference in Boston next March.