Read this article in Catalan
Jezabel Curbelo took a while to learn to speak, but very soon she discovered her passion for numbers and later for research.
Considered one of the promising young mathematics, Curbelo (Los Realejos, 1987) is a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech since 2020, a member of the Center for Mathematical Research and a guest researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Curbelo is a L’Oréal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” winner and has a Leonardo Scholarship from the BBVA Foundation, among others. She was awarded internationally in 2015 by the “Donald L. Turcotte Award” from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), in recognition of her contributions to the field of nonlinear geophysics. She is the only Spanish person with this award to date. Now, she has just received the “Research Consolidation 2023” grant from the State Research Agency to continue developing her line of research at the UPC.
How can mathematics help us?
Of many ways. My research is focused on nonlinear processes in geophysical flows, a field that allows us to analyze the mixing and transport of liquids or the agitation of fluids in the ocean, atmosphere, air and the dynamics inside planets. Our goal is to examine the evolution of different fluid systems through geometric structures, instabilities or qualitative changes. To carry it out we use analytical, numerical and computational techniques.
And what implication does your research have?
We are always looking to develop mathematical tools with a wide scope of application in the near future. If there is an oil spill in the ocean, for example, we can analyze how it will move, we can also help identify how dust and moisture mix in West Africa or contribute to understanding the dynamics within the Earth.
You can also prepare diagnoses of extreme weather events.
We study the dynamics of the atmosphere to anticipate how certain pollutants such as volcanic ash or incense smoke move around the world. If you know how air moves, you will have tools in the future to characterize where the smoke goes or how long it will stay in a certain layer. We use tools based on the theory of dynamical systems to describe the geometric structures that determine the evolution of fluids such as air.
Can mathematics prevent what will happen in the long term?
We investigate grains of sand, specific questions. In the future it would be ideal to be able to predict, know the past and talk about the future. The small questions, sometimes complicated, are those that give us something new that can later answer larger doubts.
Have you won many awards in recent years, how have you experienced it?
With great enthusiasm. This is the result of many years of effort, of dozens of requests sent, of continuous work. The awards are essential not so much for the prize itself, but for the visibility they give to science and the motivation they provide. They have helped me to establish new collaborations, promote visits with other teams… and to have more funding.
This has led you to be a visiting researcher at Harvard University…
Synergies between disciplines enrich us and are essential in the field of research. I have been fortunate to work in recent years with different teams from the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at Harvard University, in the United States. International projects like this give you access to seminars by researchers around the world and to learn about other ways of doing things. You think about other problems and see other ideas that also help you in your study.
How do you see the future?
Excited, eager to continue focusing on current lines of research. With many ideas for master’s projects and doctoral theses, and with enthusiasm to increase the research group team and continue developing at the University.
Any advice for those people who want to study Mathematics?
Motivation and patience. If you like science, mathematics, you can’t stop doing it or let anyone demotivate you. No problem is simple, neither those of mathematics nor those of life. Learning or making mistakes is very important in research.
Does it get learnt from mistakes?
Completely. In mathematics, a lot of basic research will be useful in the future, but we still don’t know what for. Every day I learn something new, I never stop doing it, even though at first it may seem like the wrong path.
