Women in Aerospace Europe (WIA-E) is a project born more than 10 years ago with the main objective of promoting, empowering and giving visibility to the participation of women in the aerospace sector. This is done through diverse activities open to all publics.

The local division of this association in Barcelona, Women in Aerospace Europe - Barcelona, presents this year the first edition of Women4Space, a series of talks that aims to give visibility to outstanding women in the space sector. This initiative has been promoted by the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) and GTD System & Software Engineering, and it is held within the agenda of the activities carried out by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) during this 2020 - 2021 school year to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The director of the Castelldefels School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering, Luis Alonso, will inaugurate this activity on 26 November 2020 at 7:00 p.m.

A professional from the sector, being a source of inspiration and a reference in her field, will speak in each of the different talks, which will be held online. The topics have been proposed by the guests and they are related to their respective professional and personal projects.

The first of the series of talks, "Gaia: Revealing the history of the Milky Way by measuring 2 billion stars", will take place on the same opening day 26 November by Dr. Carme Jordi, professor in the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics of the University of Barcelona and IEEC researcher at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), who will talk about the Gaia project and her personal and professional career experiences. This activity is framed within the Science Week in Catalonia (Setmana de la Ciència, SdC’20) and it is necessary to register in advance to attend the talk.

You will find the agenda of the series of talks below:

• 26 November 2020: "Gaia: Revealing the history of the Milky Way by measuring 2 billion stars", Carmen Jordi, professor in the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics of the University of Barcelona and IEEC researcher at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB)
• 21 January 2021: Roser Juanola, emeritus professor of the Institute of Educational Research of the University of Girona
• 18 February 2021: Licia Verde, researcher at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB)
• 18 March 2021: Gisela Detrell, Research Associate at the Institute for Space Sciences of the University of Stuttgart

WIA-E Barcelona was inaugurated on 4 October 2019, coinciding with the holding of a round table to debate on the role of women in the field of space science and technology, which was promoted by the Ajuntament of Barcelona, IEEC and GTD System & Software Engineering. The mission of the local division in Barcelona is to achieve inclusive representation for women across the aerospace sector, assure them access to executive jobs, motivate girls to get interested in science and communicate on the key role that space plays in our daily lives.