Board of Directors
Francisco José Maldonado Torralba
Presidency
I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of the University of Tartu. I am involved in several projects concerning the stability and the (im)possibility of removing spacetime singularities of gravitational theories beyond General Relativity. Apart from research I enjoy biking, playing racket sports, and knowing new places and cultures.
Isabel Palomo Dominguez
Vice Presidency
I am an Associate Professor at Mykolas Romeris University (Vilnius, Lithuania), Institute of Communication. My research interests include studying how media can foster social values and tackle 21st-century challenges. I am the leader researcher of the PSGENEQ project, an international and public-funded research project that delves into storytelling strategies to promote gender equality in a post-digital society. I love travelling and spending time with my family and friends.
Rocío Rojas Hernández
Finance
I am a Senior Researcher and Director of the Engineering Sciences Doctoral Programme in Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Tallinn, Estonia. I established myself as an independent researcher in Estonia in the frame of a Starting Grant funded by the Estonian Research Council (ETAG) and I lead the research line of advanced functional ceramic materials. My research has led to impacts on the field of nano and optical materials. I dived into Estonian Research through the Fellowship in the frame of the Mobilitas Pluss programme as Principal Investigator funded by the European Regional Development Fund and ETAG.
María (José) Benito Castaño
Secretary
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Tartu Observatory (University of Tartu) in Estonia. My research focuses on using our Milky Way and neighboring galaxies as laboratories to investigate a missing ingredient in our understanding of the Universe, the Dark Matter. Here you can find more info about my academic profile. When I am not in the familial community that is the Observatory, I am in the forest, swimming in winter or exercising. From time to time, I travel with friends.
Ana León-Manzanero
Latvia Vocal
I hold a PhD in Philology and since 2013 I have been working at the Latvian Academy of Culture, where I am the Head of the Spanish Specialization at the Department of Crosscultural Communication and Foreign Languages. My research activity can be divided into Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching, Linguistic Demography, and Intercultural Relations Spain-Latvia. I am the representative of the Baltic States in the international research network Spanish in Europe and the chairwoman of the annual Riga International Conference on Spanish as a Foreign Language. I love to take long walks, attend cultural events and enjoy the local cuisine when I travel.
Carlos Viscasillas Vázquez
Lithuania Vocal
I am a researcher and observational astronomer at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, as well as the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory of Vilnius University in Lithuania. Additionally, I am an associate researcher at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory in Italy. My work focuses on the chemical evolution of the Milky Way and, I teach the course Stellar Evolution for master’s students in Astrophysics. I have participated in major projects like the Gaia-ESO Survey and am involved in WEAVE, WST, and HRMOS. I am also a member of the Executive Council of the European Association for Astronomy Education.
Partners
Maarja Eskla
Graphic design and translation
Maarja has a degree in Sculpture from the Pallas Art School in Tartu (Estonia). She is the graphic designer who created the association’s logo. She also regularly helps us to develop communication material and to translate it into Estonian. You can find more about her work here.
Carlos Fonseca
IT services
IT Project Manager and Scrum Master with previous experience in marketing management roles and user experience. He supports small organizations to identify tech solutions to business problems. He helped us with the website. You can find out more about his work here