The engineer from San Sebastian, Idoia Ochoa, professor at Tecnun, School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, has been awarded the scholarship Ramón y Cajal from the Ministry of Science and Innovation. 

These aids are aimed at promote the incorporation of national and foreign researchers with an outstanding track record in centers of research and development in the national territory. All this is done through the granting of aid for the creation of permanent jobs with the possibility of incorporation into the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation System. 

The selection is based on a rigorous process of candidates based on their curricular merits and on their ability to lead a line of research, based on scientific and professional experience. Four points are established to be evaluated: contributions, participation in international activities, other merits and leadership capacity.

Ochoa, Tecnun' 09, studied Engineering in Telecommunication Systems at Tecnun and after obtaining a scholarship from La Caixa to pursue postgraduate studies in the United States, he completed his master's degree and thesis in California, at Stanford University. From there he became Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently a member of the department Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Tecnun, where he combines teaching with research. His research focuses on the field of personalized medicine and on development methods for data analysis. 

"My work focuses on developing computational methods for data analysis genomic, and more broadly omics data, to help make personalized medicine a reality. In addition, development compression algorithms to facilitate the storage, transmission and access of this data," explains the young engineer. 

It should be noted that she has just been selected as "one of the five prestigious women scientists of Gipuzkoa" in the Gipuzkoa Fellows Programpromoted by the Provincial Council. Its goal is to support the incorporation of researchers who have enjoyed post-doctoral training in research groups of international relevance, to Gipuzkoa centers of the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation network . At the beginning of the year, the engineer from Tecnun received the news of being among the 35 most innovative young Europeans according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Massachusetts Institute (MIT).

About the Ramón y Cajal Grants 

They involve a maximum of 175 grants for a duration of five years for the employment of PhDs by the centers of research and development in Spain. The grants, which amount to 33,720 euros per year, are intended to co-finance the salary and the employer's social security contributions of the researchers hired, with an additional 40,000 euros being granted to financial aid . 

In addition, it also includes a financial aid for the creation of permanent jobs by the agencies, which consists of an endowment of 100,000 euros for each place.