The doctor was born in Mexico, studied at UNAM, later did a doctorate in the United Kingdom and now directs a research group for ovarian cancer treatments at RMIT University in Australia.
Magdalena Plebanski, a Mexican professor and doctor, had the opportunity to travel and settle in Australia to develop her professional career.
Recently, she was recognized by the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) as a Distinguished Mexican Abroad, an appointment that was given by the Mexican ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Eduardo Peña Heller, at the Embassy of Mexico located in Canberra, capital of Australia.
With the aim of providing support to Mexican scientists, it has enabled the RMIT University and Australia to offer five doctoral scholarships so that interested young people can travel, live and continue studying in Australia.
The 5 scholarships offered by Dr. Plebanski cover the tuition fees paid at the Australian institute to study the doctorate, as well as funds for housing and food. “The first step to obtain the scholarships is for those interested to contact me and I can direct them to the university to complete the procedures, in order to choose the best candidates.
The process is to start in June 2023”, explains Dr. Magdalena Plebanski, those interested can contact Dr. directly at her email [email protected]
Although the Mexican scientist has extensive experience in the study of human immunity, she has also been involved in the investigation of vaccines against COVID-19 and is a world authority in the field of interdisciplinary research in nanotechnology for the biomedical innovation.
“When I was working at Oxford University in England on malaria vaccines, Australia sought me out because they wanted to bring someone who was doing cancer vaccine research to an institute that was dedicated to this disease,” he says.
Magdalena thinks that her good fortune has helped her to never have been disadvantaged in the field of science because she is a woman, she herself has seen many successful women in Mexico in the area of medical and biological sciences.
Regarding other areas, traditionally for men, such as engineering, the doctor believes that, currently, this idea is changing based on the confidence that women are free in science, but also that girls and boys are not growing with that rigid formation that was had before.
“Mexico has a lot of creativity and people with a lot of talent in specific areas and the task now is to take advantage of that talent, as well as extend it to other scientific areas.
For this reason, it is important to establish national and international collaboration relationships that will help to consolidate what is already available internally, as well as add to the projects in the form of technical collaboration and skills that are not yet available.
There is a lot of opportunity and appetite to collaborate with Mexico and, if Mexican researchers also want to collaborate, that gives everyone strength”, he commented.
In parallel, she believes that in Australia there is a lot of gender awareness and professional development support regardless of the gender of the people. This is put into active practice in all scientific institutions and communities in the country.
“There are, for example, specific advertisements in some companies, such as RMIT University, that offer scholarships or places to attract women who want to return to work after fulfilling traditional roles such as caregivers for their families, in order to offer them more opportunity to return to work”, says Professor Plebanski.
Dr. Plebanski, as well as remembering and thanking her training at the UNAM Biomedical Research Institute, has a special affection for CINVESTAV of the IPN, the place where she spent part of her childhood, her father also being a scientist there, and who invariably it was an important factor to become empowered in the area of research and science.
