Although in her childhood, inspired by the adventures of the character Indiana Jones, the researcher of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Julia Halperin thought of studying Anthropology, during high school Biology won the arm wrestling match. “I entered the degree with the idea that I liked Marine Biology and the first subject I had with Dr. Alberto Kornblihtt blew my mind, as happens to most”, she recalls.
After finishing her degree at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), her interest in understanding how organisms work led her to do a doctorate in Animal Physiology at the same institution.
Due to the economic crisis in 2001, he went to the United States together with his partner, the physicist Gustavo Otero y Garzón. that he had the opportunity to do his doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “I finished my degree at a very difficult time for research, it was always difficult, but back then it was very complex to do science. it was very discouraging”, explains the biologist specializing in reproductive endocrinology.
“I came up with a title, going with him,” says Halperin. However, that UBA degree and the good reputation of the work of Argentine researchers in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Illinois at Chicago opened the doors for him to work there and deepen your knowledge of endocrinology and reproduction which was what he wanted.
In addition, there she found the researcher Geula Gibori in charge of the laboratory and her “first experience working with a feminist”, says Halperin this February 11, International Day of Women and Girls in Scienceand adds that “at the time I couldn’t really understand the message he was giving me because I came with a different head”.
The biologist describes that decades ago the cultural perception based on gender was different. “Men used to be considered more intelligent and daring”, describes. As a concrete example, he mentions that before leaving the country in an interview the director of a pharmacy and biochemistry laboratory He asked her if she was married or in a relationship and if she planned to have children.
“I left horrified because they couldn’t take anyone who had children in perspective because they thought it would take time away from the doctorate plan,” she recalls. The situation was different with Gibori who He encouraged her to no longer postpone her desire to have children because of her career.
When comparing with the past, Halperin considers that “in CONICET some things have been reviewed and are better, there has been progress. But some issues still need to be discussed make assessments fairer for women who spend time on caregivingwhich can decrease its production.
Among the improvements, it lists pregnancy leave for interns, which did not exist before. In addition, the year after the birth, the researchers are not required to present the report included in the permanent evaluations that the institution carries out.
“Things have changed a lot and for the better. We are halfway there, we must continue to improve the situation of women in science and in general”, thinks the biologist who at the end of 2008 he returned to the country through a CONICET program of postdoctoral reintegration scholarships with her husband (who did it through the Raíces program) and the first of her two children. Since then she works in the Center for Basic, Applied and Development Biomedical Studies (CEBBAD) of the Maimonides University.
Although in CONICET there are more women than men at the level of doctoral fellows, postdoctoral fellows and assistant researchers, “as you move up, when you reach the last rank -which is a senior researcher-, only 20% corresponds to women”, Halperín points out and adds that the disparity increases in areas such as physics, mathematics, computing, and engineering.
“We have the challenge of putting the discussion on the table in all areas. Before arriving at university, you have to start working on it from the time your children are in school, making them available more role models of women in science”, proposes the researcher.
Halperin motivates to break with certain gender stereotypes that impose certain choices in studies: “Girls are oriented more towards Social Sciences because mathematics, engineering and computing are things for men”.
Reproduction and climate change
For ten years he has been researching at CEBBAD where study reproduction in an autochthonous model of rodents, the vizcacha. This animal has certain characteristics of reproductive endocrinology that are very atypical. “Has the highest ovulatory rate so far described in mammalsHalperin says.
Thus, while species such as the rat or the mouse can reach 20 ovules per cycle, the vizcacha reaches between 500 and 800, although in general, after five months, only two pups are the ones that complete the development and are born, as a natural mechanism.
“Me study ovarian function because the more information I have regarding the normal functioning of the ovary, the better I will be able to collaborate in the understanding of fertility, polycystic ovary and tumors”, explains the researcher.
Now the CEBBAD team has started a new line of research to analyze the potential impact of conditions linked to climate change -such as the increase in temperature or changes in the water balance- in the reproduction of wild species such as the vizcacha.
“The studies carried out are very much aimed at farm animals due to a production issue, but we are all aware that the alteration of the environment, of the wild fauna and florait has implications and at some point the bill will pass us by”, he assures.
Halperin is happy with her present at the lab where she works where most of the directors are women. And she is very happy to have returned to the country. “It was an enormous growth to have worked in another place for a while, it is an experience that I recommend regardless of whether there is a crisis or not”, she expresses and clarifies that she never took it as something permanent. “I did my whole career at the public university. I want to be part of this system and in some way be able to contribute so that it develops more and more”, he concludes.
