Sebastián Gallegos, a graduate of the School of Earth Sciences, Energy and Environment at Yachay Tech University, won the AGU Fall Meeting 2020 award, the largest meeting in geosciences (https://cutt.ly/fzxY2ar )

AGU (American Geophysical Union), Fall Meeting 2020, which was held in December, is the largest international meeting of space and terrestrial science in the world.

Sebastián Gallegos, the only Ecuadorian to have won this award, will have the opportunity to contact high-level geoscientists and obtain important opportunities for studies and projects.

AGU supports 130,000 Earth and space science enthusiasts and experts around the world. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU promotes the discovery and science of solutions that accelerate knowledge and create responses that are ethical, impartial and respectful of communities and their values.

The Outstanding Student Presentation Awards (OSPA) are given to promote, recognize, and reward undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students for quality research in the geophysical sciences. Each year, the Sections recruit judges to evaluate and score the student’s oral, poster, and eLightning presentations at meetings. Typically, 2-5% of the best presenters in each section receive an OSPA.

Gallegos competed for an OSPA with an online presentation (eLightning presentation) in the Near-Surface Geophysics theme.

Students who participate in OSPA are 12% more likely to present research at future meetings, in addition to being known in the global geoscientific community.

Sebastián stated that: “I could not have had better professors, the teaching at Yachay Tech is very broad and applied to both personal and academic training. Yachay Tech allowed me to give national and international presentations, as well as win prizes and recognitions”.

Sebastián wishes continue with his studies abroad and contribute to the science and technology of the country, to become one of the best geoscientists in Ecuador.

Finally, Sebastián urged the University students to always trust their classmates and professors to guide them.

This way, Yachay Tech constantly promotes the obtaining and transmission of research-based knowledge, which requires a full articulation between academic knowledge and research experience.