Dr. Sandra Lopez Verges

Dr. Sandra López Verges received her Bachelor in Biochemistry (2001), her Master degree in Microbiology speciality Virology (2003) and
her Ph.D. in Microbiology speciality Virology (2007) at the Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Ecole Normale Supérieure d’Ulm and Pasteur Institute in France. As her research focuses to understand viral infections and the virus-­‐human host interactions, she complemented her expertise in Virology with a post-­‐doctoral training in Immunology at the University of California San Francisco. Since 2012, she is now back to Panama as a Health researcher at the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies (ICGES). Back in her country, she is developing a new line of research on innate immunity of arboviral diseases, mentoring students at the PhD, master, bachelor and even high school level. Her research and work has resulted in one patent and more than 25 publications in high impact journals, co-­‐editor of ane-­‐book and prestigous awards as UNESCO-­‐L’OREAL international fellowship for Young women in Science in 2014, TWAS-­‐APANAC award in 2014, being named member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) for five years in 2018, obtaining several young investigator awards in recognized international conferences in virology and immunology, and being appointed as a Member of the National Research System (SNI) in Panama.
Dr. López is committed for Women in Science as she has helped organized an annual National UNESCO-­‐L’OREAL award with SENACYT, L’OREAL and UNESCO in 2017, she continous to work for a better gender equity in science with the GYA and more locally, with the mouvement CienciaEnPanama, Ciudad del Saber and SENACYT. Sandra is also a mentor in the women empowerment program of the Ekpa’palek fondation for Latin American students and professionals. Finally, she has a wide interest in Science Diplomacy and Science advice, showing her interest in working to address global challenges and to increase the impact of science in the social, environmental and health issues. Being one of the fellows of the Science Diplomacy and Leadership workshop organized by AAAS in 2017, she is participating with SENACYT, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other colleagues on the development of Science Diplomacy strategy for Panama.