Judith Estengre Pérez

"My first steps into science were when I decided to study physics. In my eyes, physics were the answer to all; physics explains the rules of the world, why things happen, and how we can use them to our benefit. During my bachelors, I learned an important lesson: multidisciplinary fields of science are magic, powerful, and the future. I meet biophysics, my passion. As a result of my finding, I conducted a fellowship in a Hospital as a radiophysicist. Furthermore, for my bachelor’s thesis, I worked on adjusting the parameters for a radiation beam of a linear accelerator of radiotherapy in a Monte Carlo simulator. Due to my personal situation, a few years passed before I started with master’s degree. During that period, I was working as a junior programmer and, as clean room manager for the department of R&D and manufacturing. In both cases the experience was really valuable, but I wanted to follow my first scientific love: biophysics. When I got the opportunity, I conducted a master in Condensed Matter Physics and Biological Systems with specialization in Biophysics. I discovered a number of fields that caught my interested, but I was fascinate by neuroscience world. Thus, in my master’s thesis, I studied how to redirect the cell fate of neural stem cells through electrical stimulation. After the master, I keep working on the same project but, for external reasons, the project could not continue. Luckily, I found the NeuroTrans program (European Training Network from Marie Slowdoviska-Curie actions), which would give me the opportunity to follow my dream of being a researcher. The first step to achieve that is to become a doctor, hence continue learning. Thus, it is what I am doing: a PhD about time-resolved crystallography in Pearson lab."