·       The astrophysicist, who leads the Gaia project in Galicia for the creation of the largest map of the Milky Way, will preside over the institution that brings together a thousand astronomy professionals.

·       Minia Manteiga was elected yesterday afternoon as the new president of SEA at the assembly held during the XVI Scientific Meeting of the entity in Granada.

A Coruña, July 19, 2024.- CITIC researcher and UDC professor, Minia Manteiga, has been appointed as the new president of the Spanish Astronomy Society (SEA) at the general assembly held this past Thursday, July 18 in Granada.

The astrophysicist and UDC professor, Mina Manteiga, will preside over an institution that brings together 950 astronomy professionals -including around 625 doctors in astrophysics and about 280 junior members-, an entity of which she was already vice president.

Minia Manteiga Outeiro is a professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of A Coruña, where she leads a group that has been contributing to the Gaia mission archive for years, creating tools for the analysis and exploitation of satellite data.

Her professional career began at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, where she completed her doctoral thesis on stellar evolution through the study of star clusters. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Istituto di Astrofísica Spaziale in Frascati (Rome) and at the Laboratory of Space Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics (LAEFF, INTA), the seed of the current Center for Astrobiology. She later moved to academia, teaching at the University of Vigo before moving to the University of A Coruña, her current institution.

In 2020, she was appointed a full member of the Royal Galician Academy of Sciences, where she carries out intense astronomy outreach activities in Galicia. She has been a collaborator of the State Research Agency in the Space subarea, and she is currently the coordinator of the Astronomy and Astrophysics subarea.

“Sharing the science of the sky”

“I take on the challenge of presiding over the Spanish Astronomy Society with gratitude for the trust of the society and with the desire to continue strengthening our collective as a cohesive society that provides its members with tools to share the science of the sky, especially focusing on supporting young researchers,” she said upon accepting the new position. “SEA not only serves as a vehicle to disseminate information of general interest, it is also a meeting forum that can serve to mobilize wills around exciting ideas or projects, such as the realization of our Scientific Meeting every two years. The people who make up SEA are diverse and that enriches us and makes us better. We are more than 1000 members including established researchers, young researchers in training, associate members, and retired astronomers”.

Minia Manteiga takes on the position after having been a member of the SEA Board and having held the position of vice president for the last 4 years. “Serving such a broad society is a great challenge, but the experience of recent years has made me see that it is a very rewarding responsibility from a human point of view, and a great fortune from a professional point of view, which makes me very proud”.

Changes have also occurred in other positions on the Board of the Spanish Astronomy Society. The vice presidency will be held by José Manuel Vílchez (IAA-CSIC) and Míriam Cortés Contreras (UCM) will take over the treasury position left by Ramón Oliver Herrero (UIB). Consuelo Cid Tortuero (UAH) and Sergio Simón Díaz (IAC) will be new members. The positions will be effective on January 1, 2025.