Seville, July 27, 2015. The creative process in art and science has many aspects in common. There are even some who think that art and science are two sides of the same coin, with Leonardo da Vinci perhaps being the archetype of the artist-scientist.
Today, others believe that in our time there are too many things to know that make this “ideal” personified by Leonardo unattainable. Is that so? Is there no place for the artist-scientist in the 21st century?
In the incomparable setting of the Salzburg Music and Theatre Festival, Austria, one hundred students aged between 20 and 29 will attend the Roche Continents event. From August 11 to 17, 2015, thanks to a varied program of talks and workshops between scientists and artists, students from all over Europe will discover how innovation shares common processes in art and science.
These students (undergraduate, master’s and postgraduate) are chosen as the best in all of Europe in the fields of humanities and science. And among them is Paula Sotelo, an internal student of the Biointeractomics group, attached to the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis, belonging to the Isla de la Cartuja Scientific Research Centre (cicCartuja).
Paula’s application was supported by Professor Enrique Cerdá, emeritus professor of the Department of Genetics at the University of Seville. Paula says that “when Professor Enrique Cerdá suggested that I enter the selection process for Roche Continents, I didn’t think twice. Currently I feel a total vocation to develop a career in Biochemistry to be a researcher. Even so, I have been very attached to the humanities since my childhood, and I have not forgotten other forms of art such as cooking (another laboratory, after all) or photography.”
“Despite the great pressure that the selection process entailed, the effort has been worth it. “It is very interesting that young people from scientific and artistic disciplines, so similar and yet so opposite, attend. I am excited to live this experience in which I am convinced that all participants will enrich their personal and professional world,” concludes the young scientist.
