Professor Clara Grima Ruiz – We Are All Graph Here

Abstract

We live in a network. Ours is a very small and very connected world. That’s why we are so similar. That’s why we are so different. Graph theory can (or, at least, tries to) help us understand a bit of this wonderful network that traps us, from the fashions in Tiktok to the connections in our brains.

Biography

Clara Isabel Grima Ruiz was born in Coria del Rio (Seville, Spain). She got her PhD in Mathematics at the University of Seville and became a Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics I at the same institution. She is specialised in computational geometry and she is known for her research on scutoids (polyhedron-like shapes that can pack the space between pairs of curved surfaces). She is also the president of the scientific outreach commission of the Spanish Royal Society of Mathematics (RSME). 

Clara is one the most well-known scientific disseminators in Spain, with particular emphasis on making Mathematics understandable to the general public, and especially to the youngest. She is very active in social media and has also delivered numerous talks, collaborated with renowned Spanish media, and written books about Mathematics. Within those, “Mati y sus mateaventuras: Hasta el infinito y más allá” a children’s book telling the stories of a girl, Mati, and her maths-related adventures; “Las matemáticas vigilan tu salud”, a book about how Mathematics are useful tools to understand how diseases are spread and how to stop them; and “¡Que las matemáticas te acompañen!”, a book about how Mathematics are the basis of every aspect in society. She has also written articles for Spanish newspapers and has been involved in TV shows which aimed to make science knowledge more accessible. She has a popular podcast entitled “Los tres chanchitos” (in English, “The three little pigs”), which is broadcasted on Seville Web Radio every Tuesday night. This podcast, in collaboration with Enrique Fernández Borja and Alberto Márquez, is focused on interviewing scientists covering a wide range of scientific topics and fields.

Clara has received countless awards for her scientific outreach activities. Among them, she has received the Special Prisma Jury Award in 2018, the Mario Bohoslavsky Award in 2018, the COSCE award in 2017, the University of Seville Award to Scientific Outreach in 2017/2018, and the Bitácoras Award to the best podcast in 2016. In 2023, she will receive the award “Passion for Science” at the IV edition of the #LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival held in Pamplona (Spain). Since 2018, she is also part of the jury of the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.