On February 13, the Consulate General of Mexico in Boston hosted an event at the Museum of Science that highlighted women scientists from Mexico and their experiences in celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
Women make up around 30% of scientific researchers: around 6 percent are Hispanic women, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Mariana Matus, one of the three panelists, spoke about how she was a fan of “Jurassic Park” as a child and grew up hoping to become a scientist. She studied in Mexico before moving to Cambridge for earning a Ph.D. in computational biology at MIT. In 2018, she co-founded Biobot Analytics, the first and most comprehensive wastewater surveillance platform in the U.S., which tracked the COVID-19 pandemic through wastewater before clinical data was widely available.
“When I entered MIT, I had never heard the concept of entrepreneurship,” Matus said in an interview after the event. “Can you imagine that? In Mexico, businesses are family businesses and we didn’t have that concept that any person could start their own business.”
Over 30 people gathered to listen to the panel, which also included Tatiana Niembro, an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sofia Bosch Gómez, a public service innovation designer and assistant professor in Art and Design at Northeastern University, showcase how their dedication to science and their backgrounds shaped their journeys, and personal challenges they faced working their way up the scientific ladder.
“I have definitely faced skepticism about my ability to be a business leader, given that I am a woman, an immigrant, that I have a thick accent,” Matus said. “A lot of questions that I do wonder I’d get if I looked different.”
While forming the company, people suggested that she become a chief scientific officer, rather than a CEO, suggesting this to be a more fitting role for a woman. However, Charlie Baker, the Governor of Massachusetts from 2015 to 2023, adopted the platform in its early stages. This support for Matus’ small biotech business allowed local Cambridge and Boston-area hospitals to better prepare for influxes of COVID patients.
“Actually, Cambridge has been one of our earliest partners,” Matus said. Baker “understood the vision he got behind our company even before the COVID pandemic. They were our very first state customer.”
Matus shared that she remains grateful for the city’s support and talent, as support from the city and people like Baker had allowed her to develop her business as an immigrant woman, and allowed her company to save lives.
“The MIT community was very supportive as we started, and Cambridge still is to this day,” Matus said.
Bosch Gómez works with the city too, in designing public institutions, aiming to bridge research and government action in the public sector. She has faced similar barriers and watched women drop out of her field. Despite the surplus of women at the earlier stages of art and design careers, most associate and full professors are men.
“Through the pipeline, we are losing them,” she said. Only 37% of full professors are women in the U.S.
The panel also reflected on how women, especially from a diverse range of backgrounds, could be encouraged to enter — and most importantly, remain — in science.
“We need to give more exposure to scientists who are women in the media,” Matus said. “Growing up, I never saw a scientist in my life, let alone a woman scientist.”
Niembro and Bosch Gómez echoed the need for representation in the sciences and emphasized the importance of support systems aimed at paving a path for young women in scientific research.
“I try to think more from a systemic approach,” said Bosch Gómez. “I think mentorship and outreach programs have a lot of impact.”
Zoe Beketova is a student in MIT’s Science Writing Program.
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