Chilean Institute of Engineers Awards Salomé Martínez the 2024 “Distinguished Engineering Actions” Prize

Chilean Institute of Engineers Awards Salomé Martínez the 2024 “Distinguished Engineering Actions” Prize

The full professor at the University of Chile is the first woman to receive this prestigious distinction since its establishment in 1984.

On Thursday, October 24, the Chilean Institute of Engineers awarded the 2024 “Distinguished Engineering Actions” prize to Salomé Martínez Salazar, a professor in the Department of Mathematical Engineering at the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (FCFM) of the University of Chile and principal investigator at the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM). The ceremony took place at the Institute’s Assembly Hall.

Led by IING President Juan Carlos Barros, the event was attended by FCFM Dean Francisco Martínez, Vice Dean Marcela Munizaga, and Leonardo J. Basso, an academic from the Department of Industrial Engineering, who received the award in 2023 and delivered a speech in honor of his successor.

In his address, Professor Basso highlighted Martínez’s significant professional achievements in academia and research, particularly her interdisciplinary approach to educational challenges, blending science and technology to enhance learning. Among her projects is “Suma y Sigue,” which earned her the UNESCO-Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prize for Outstanding Practice and Performance in Improving Teachers’ Effectiveness in 2017-2018. He also underscored the impact of the digital tool MatCon (Mathematics Connected) and the Sumo Primero textbook series, developed by the Chilean Ministry of Education.

At the event, it was emphasized that Martínez received the award in recognition of her outstanding career focused on enhancing math learning and teaching in public education and her contributions to post-pandemic learning recovery. Her contributions have been implemented across three main areas: Professional development for in-service teachers; Development of learning resources for school classrooms; and Innovation in initial teacher training.

“The award is granted to an engineer who has demonstrated distinguished actions in the public and/or private sectors within the past three years. Distinguished actions go beyond the usual efficient performance of engineering duties, resulting in evident benefits for the country, society, the profession, or the Institute,” explained the institution.

Martínez Breaks Barriers

For 40 years, the Chilean Institute of Engineers has awarded the “Distinguished Engineering Actions” prize, and this is the first year a woman has received it. “Mathematics has shaped me as a person — inquisitive, persistent, tenacious, and rigorous. It has taught me not to fear problems but to understand that they can be addressed in some way. There’s always a hypothesis, something that can be done,” Martínez remarked, who is also the Director of Transfer and Innovation and the Director of the Education Lab at the Center for Mathematical Modeling.

Her extensive and recognized work addresses educational challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective, forming teams and work models in which science and technology play a key role. This approach, which is fundamental to solving complex problems, has been essential to her success at CMM-Edu.

“The contributions being celebrated here are the work of a remarkable team, the Education Lab at CMM, which is a large and diverse team unafraid of challenges, working with a great deal of creativity, knowledge, and rigor,” she stated.

Public Education

Joaquín Walker, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Education’s Educational Reactivation Plan, commended Professor Martínez’s work and that of her team, saying, “I have had the chance to witness Salomé’s commitment and work firsthand… For years, she has been a valuable ally of various Ministry departments, mobilizing specialized teams that have created resources and programs and, in turn, supported the strategy to reactivate mathematics education.”

Walker added that “in recent years, they have dedicated much of their efforts to strengthening professional development opportunities for teachers, with a long-term vision and a goal of making a large-scale impact. So much so that the Ministry of Education’s Center for Teacher Development, in collaboration with the CMM, is now implementing a partnership agreement that provides a coherent offering of courses for teachers across Chile.”

During the ceremony, the Institute of Engineers also presented the 2024 “Ramón Salas Edwards” prize to the development of the “Design and Construction of the Band 1 Optical Receiving System for the ALMA Observatory,” led by Professor Ricardo Finger from the University of Chile.

Center for Mathematical Modeling

The CMM is today the most active scientific research institution in mathematical modeling in Latin America. It is a center of excellence of the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) of Chile, integrated by eight partner universities and located at the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile. It is also the International Research Laboratory (IRL) #2807 of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Its mission is to create mathematics in response to problems in other sciences, industry and public policy. It seeks to develop science with the highest standards, excellence and rigor in areas such as data science, climate and biodiversity, education, resource management, mining and digital health.

Alonso Farías Ponce, journalist of the Center for Mathematical Modeling.
FCFM Communications, University of Chile.

Posted on Oct 28, 2024 in News