Occupation researcher, academic | Years active 2003- | |
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Full Name Mayly Carolina Sánchez Alma maters University of the Andes, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Tufts University | ||
Carolina alcalde entrevista a la cient fica mayly s nchez
Mayly Sánchez is a Venezuelan-born particle physicist who researches at Iowa State University. In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor given by the United States to beginning scientists, who are in the early stages of their research careers. In 2013, she was named by the BBC as one of the top ten women scientists in Latin America.
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Biography
Mayly Sánchez was born in Caracas, Venezuela and relocated with her family to Mérida, Venezuela at the age of 13. She attended high school at the Colegio Fátima and went on for her university studies at Universidad de Los Andes, ULA in Mérida. She completed an undergraduate degree in physics in 1995, and won a scholarship for postgraduate work at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. Earning her diploma in high energy physics in 1996, she was accepted into a doctoral program at Tufts University outside of Boston, Massachusetts and completed her PhD in 2003.
After graduation, Sánchez worked as postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University. In 2007 she was hired as assistant physicist at the US Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory. In 2009 she joined the faculty of Iowa State University, where she is now an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Cassling Family Professor. Her research is part of the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), which is planned to send an intense beam of neutrinos from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois to a detector located at the Homestake Mine in South Dakota. The experiment is designed to help scientists understand how the universe formed and why neutrinos change form, especially when they pass through rock. Sánchez is also working on the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search and NOνA experiments designed to study neutrino oscillations sent from Fermilab detectors in northern Minnesota, and she is a spokesperson of the Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE) at Fermilab. In 2012, the White House announced that Sánchez was one of the 2011 PECASE Award winners, which is the highest award granted by the United States to young scientists beginning their careers. In 2013, she was named by the BBC as one of the top ten women scientists in Latin America.