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  • CAREER COLUMN

How Latin American researchers suffer in science

It’s time to tackle the cumulative barriers and biases faced by scientists who aren’t from wealthy countries.
  1. Ana M. Valenzuela-Toro

    1. Ana M. Valenzuela-Toro is a Chilean PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a Peter Buck Predoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, and a Clinton Global Initiative University fellow.

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  2. Mariana Viglino

    1. Mariana Viglino is an Argentinian postdoctoral fellow based at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET)’s Patagonian Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (IPGP) in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. She is also a member of ‘La Colectiva por una Ciencia sin machismo’, an activist group dedicated to fighting sexism by promoting inclusive practices in scientific institutions and drawing attention to the inequalities that women and LGBTQIA+ researchers experience.

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As female researchers from Latin American countries (one of us now works in the United States, the other in Argentina), we’re used to career obstacles. These range from limited funding to language barriers and the ‘tax’, in terms of time and emotional energy, incurred when under-represented groups in science participate in diversity initiatives. These barriers knit together to create problems beyond the obvious.

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Nature 598, 374-375 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02601-8

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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