An interview with Marina Logares

Name: Marina Logares

Current Job: Visiting Professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)

Scientific Discipline/Field: Mathematics, Geometry

Country: Spain

Pick some letters (L,G,B,T,Q,+, etc.): L

Website: https://www.ucm.es/marina_logares/

Twitter or other social media handle: @MarinaLogares

What does your job involve?

I teach at the degrees in Mathematics, Mathematical Engineering, and Maths Education. I also conduct my research in Geometry and Mathematical Physics and supervise undergrad and PhD students. As I am also interested on the impact of Mathematics in the general population I also give some talks to the general public on History of Mathematics or the impact of Geometry in other disciplines. I also work for some gender equality committees. The committee for Women and Mathematics of the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society, as well as the ICMAT gender equality committee. I’m very happy to say that those committees, in the lack of a specific LGBT committee for these institutions, are also allies for LGBT rights.

How did you get to this job (education etc.)?

It was a long travel that took me from Spain to Germany, Portugal and UK. I finish my PhD in 2006 in Madrid Spain (although during my PhD I was also abroad. I was a visiting student at the University of Oxford and the University of Porto) Then I was lucky to get one year postdoctoral position at the Max Planck in Bonn (Germany) and then three years at the University of Porto (Portugal) but I did not finish those three years and got a postdoctoral position at the newly created ICMAT in Madrid, a top research institution in Mathematics belonging to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) So I move back to Spain in 2010.

Unfortunately the economical crisis, started in 2008, hit Spanish Science so badly that there were very few position openings for several years. Hence in 2015 I decided to leave Spain again and got a Marie Curie to develop in Oxford. That was very lucky because I got rapidly hired at Plymouth where I became a Lecturer in 2017. Finally, I was offered an opportunity to come back to Madrid which I accepted so I’m now back in Madrid again.

Do you feel being LGBT has affected your career decisions?

Of course! quite a lot!. Specially during the economical crisis many Spanish mathematicians moved to Brazil. Moreover, some of my collaborators are in India, and many people encouraged me to apply for positions in these countries. But the laws, or the known difficulties that LGBT communities were suffering in these countries at that time, were a total put off for me. Moreover, also the (low) levels of freedom or independence that different societies allow to women have been another condition that make me think twice on where to apply to.

Have you had any reactions from colleagues about being LGBT, either good or bad?

On the bright side, I am very happy about a collaborator that is also a friend, but his religion is against LGBT. When he found out I’m lesbian (I’ve just went to a get together with my girlfriend for that time) he just asked me to have a chat and wanted to know my viewpoint, how I realise etc. He was very much supportive. Since then he, and his wife, has been my most supportive friends.

On the other side, I have been dismissed by colleagues sometimes for being a lesbian, I would say that sometimes the dismissive attitude was due to just being a woman. I may say that in most cases I don’t know how to distinguish, among those, the reason behind.

Moreover, a very awkward situation is that being a lesbian sometimes is misunderstood, by heterosexual cisgender men, for being a woman to whom you can talk about sex which could get to be a very uncomfortable situation. I believe that for some people being LGBT is equivalent to a certain sex focused way of life, which I fail to see the correlation, and may create very unprofessional situations.

Did you have any role models growing up (LGBT, STEM, totally unrelated.)?

Not quite, but it did help me watching Ellen Degeneres on her monologues. I kind of know them by heart! She was a funny lesbian, happy for being who she is, and with a very intelligent and emphatic sense of humor. Watching her always cheer me up and made me feel belonging to a community that I love, a community that is about love and let people be as they are.

I would say that, not exactly role models, but I have been very lucky for having quite inspiring people in my life. I may say that I’m lucky to get inspiration from my friends.

What are your plans for the future?

Now that I recently moved to another city many things have to start again. My plans can be summarised as “I would like to develop families”. A family at work, meaning a research group with international links, an LGBT family sharing some LGBT rights fight, and a family for life.

Anything else you’d like to add?

There is a quote by E.A. Poe that inspired me often and I hope it might inspire others: “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”