Julieta Fierro

Julieta Fierro was born in Mexico City in 1948 and studied physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before earning a doctorate in astronomy. Her research focused on the gas and dust that fill the space between stars and on how galaxies form and evolve, work she carried out for decades as a professor at UNAM's Institute of Astronomy.

Alongside her research, she became convinced that science in Mexico needed to reach far beyond university campuses, into communities that had no tradition of encouragement toward science and often no access to one at all. She helped design and build planetariums and science museums across the country, wrote dozens of books aimed at children and general readers, and appeared regularly on television and radio explaining astronomy in plain, accessible language.

Her outreach work reached students in poor and rural areas who would otherwise have had almost no exposure to professional science, and she became one of the most recognisable public faces of science in Mexico, credited with drawing many young people, including many young women, toward scientific careers.

She has received numerous honours for this combination of research and public engagement, including recognition from UNESCO, and has continued, well into her seventies, to argue that scientific literacy should not be a privilege reserved for those who can afford a good university.