Belén Lerma graduated in Chemistry in 2016 and did her master’s degree the following year. Her doctoral thesis, in 2022, is entitled ‘Exploring Chemical Complexity in Group IV Reticular Solids’ and is directed by Carlos Martí Gastaldo and Natalia Muñoz Padial. In 2022, Lerma was awarded a “Margarita Salas Grant” postdoctoral scholarship at the Institute for Chemical Technology by the UPV-CSIC. In 2024, she was awarded a “Juan de la Cierva” scholarship at the same Institute.

The award was presented by the vice-principal for Studies, Isabel Vázquez, and by the dean. Adela Mauri. The event took place in the Graduate Hall “Marie Sklodowska-Curie” of the Faculty of Chemistry.

Francisca Lorente Solaz (Valencia, 1891-1981) was the first woman to graduate in Science, Chemistry Section, from the Universitat de València in 1917. Between 1920 and 1922, she worked at the Laboratory of Physical Researches, created in Madrid in 1910 by the Junta de Ampliación de Estudios.

Her research focused on electrochemistry and electro analysis, under the direction of Enrique Moles and together with Carmen Pradel. In 1931, she worked as a professor in the municipal laboratory of Chemical Sciences in Valencia, directed by Vicente Candela Ortells, and from 1932 onwards as a pharmacist in Avenida del Puerto street.