Karín Menéndez-Delmestre, Ph.D.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Karín obtained her B.Sc. in Physics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. After a one-year Fulbright fellowship at the Leiden Sterrewacht (Astronomy Institute) in the Netherlands, she went on to pursue her PhD in Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where she focused her research on dusty, distant starbursts. Eager to continue her work in research and formally put into paper her commitment and interest in developing educational and outreach programs, she took on an NSF Astronomy & Astrophyiscs Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, where she established close ties with the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. In 2011 she moved to Brazil to become an astronomy professor at the Valongo Observatory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), where she leads today a group of students and postdocs in extragalactic astronomical research. In 2015 she was granted the “For Women in Science” award by L’Oréal in partnership with UNESCO and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, in the area of Physics. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics in Extragalactic Astrophysics, with emphasis on formation and evolution of galaxies. Mother of two young daughters, she devotes time and energy towards a more inclusive and diverse scientific and academic community. She is a regional ambassador of the “Parent in Science” movement in Brazil, member of the recently-instaured Working Group on Parenthood and Gender Equity at the UFRJ and coordinator for the UFRJ extension program “Mothers in the University — access, permanence and progression of student mothers”.