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Meet Dr. Edna Patricia Matta-Camacho—Chemist, Networker, and Global Talent Mentoring Partner, Setting an Inspiring Example for Young People in Colombia and Everywhere

By Ildikó Győryné Csomó

Dr. Edna Patricia Matta-Camacho has come a long way. The little girl who passionately dismantled the family radio in the old days in Colombia is now a leader at Health Canada, overseeing Canadian drug authorization procedures. In addition to her everyday work, Dr. Matta-Camacho is the founder and executive director of Global Talent Mentoring partner Fundación STEM sin Fronteras; and since 2022, she has been a member of the jury for the UNESCO Al Fozan International Prize for the Promotion of Young Scientists in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Throughout her remarkable scientific career, Dr. Matta-Camacho has relied on the good advice and valuable experiences that were shared with her by peers, mentors, and supervisors. Now she is using her resources to organize networks that can offer assistance to others on their own journeys. Recently, I had the privilege of having an extended conversation with Dr. Matta-Camacho. She revealed what motivated her to follow this amazingly colorful and exciting career path.

You are a scientist. What inspired you to choose this career path in the first place? For one, I was always very, very curious from an early age. My mom was very frustrated with me, because I was always dismantling our electronic devices. I wanted to see how they worked! For example, I completely took apart the radio we used to listen to the news. In some cases, I actually destroyed them by accident! I was also very good at mathematics, and I received a lot of praise for that. So, naturally, that motivated me to keep learning until this became a passion. Later, in high school, when chemistry was introduced, I was enthralled by the idea of how chemistry explains the behavior of the molecules and their interactions and, by extension, life itself. So, in hindsight, I think it was the frisson of discovering why things work that really motivated me to study chemistry in college. My curiosity and passion for chemistry have remained ever since. As I always say, if I had to choose again, I would choose chemistry again! If I had to put everything that got me into science into one word, it would be curiosity, which I think is a, perhaps even the driving force of science. 

Curiosity is the driving force of science.

You’ve earned multiple degrees, including a PhD, and you did your work in Colombia, Mexico, and Canada. How has the experience of doing academic and scientific work in three countries shaped you?
It opened my mind and broadened my cultural understanding. I remember when I first left Colombia and went to Mexico; I was fascinated to see how similar we were in culture and language, and yet so different in the ways we did things. This gave me a lot of perspective, and I learned how to adapt.

I must admit, however: It was hard. During my first trip to Mexico, I was still doing my undergraduate work. At first, I wanted to call everything off and go back home; but then I realized that it is an amazing opportunity that I needed embrace with all my heart and energy. Later, when I returned to Colombia to defend my thesis, everyone was so impressed with me. My peers and the students in younger cohorts were asking me for advice. I was very happy to be able to speak with them about my experience in Mexico and to see how they became motivated to study abroad, too. That was the point when I realized sharing experiences is powerful—contagious—because you can change people’s minds in a good way.

Another amazing benefit of studying in more than one culture is having the chance to develop the skill of adaptation. My international journey gave me a great opportunity to get to know different scientists and learn about how science is done in different places. It’s the same science, of course, but there are different resources everywhere. In Colombia and Mexico, the resources were limited, so we learned how to save some of the reactive materials we needed for our experiments, or to recycle them to do different things. Here in Canada, I have different opportunities to try out things as we have more resources. However, learning with how to work with more restricted resources was a valuable lesson that still helps me to be flexible and adapt to new environments. These experiences have shaped the person I am now professionally and personally. 

You had mentors who guided you as a youth and young professional. How did they influence your path, both professionally and personally? The first people in my life who helped me were my two older sisters. One of them, who is a microbiologist and bacteriologist now, was already a teacher when I was finishing high school. She was the one who advised me how to go to the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. This huge step in my life was much easier with her support and guidance. Another important person I would like to mention was my PhD supervisor in Mexico. She supported me, taught me, and helped me with the personal aspects of my life. I was very fortunate to have a lot of female mentors throughout my life. They could relate to me in many ways and readily understood my struggles.

Mentoring becomes especially valuable when you have to make decisions or face challenges. It is an immense help to have a knowledgeable person whom you can turn to with your questions. It is important to note that the mentor will not make decisions for you; rather, they will share their experiences, allowing you to gain insights and, perhaps, to form your own decisions on a better, more informed basis. 

In 2018, you launched the Fundación STEM sin Fronteras (STEM Without Borders Foundation). The foundation focuses on supporting and empowering students and teachers in STEM areas. How does the foundation work to achieve this goal?
We have two main missions. The first is to provide equal access to STEM education for students in the rural areas of Colombia. We started with a pilot project in the Tolima region. We organized in-person presentations for kids in the schools by experts who originally came from that region. We talked about our roots in the Tolima region and what our careers look like now. We brought experiments and robots, and the kids were fascinated. It was clear that they had the same curiosity I had been talking about; they just lacked the resources.

The second mission is to empower girls and women and help them to learn to believe that STEM could be a potential career for them, too. We discovered that girls in Colombia, especially in the rural areas, don’t want to go to university. The reason behind this is not a lack of skills but rather lack of awareness that this is a realistic path for them. The only female examples in STEM they see are their teachers, or perhaps a nurse. Therefore, by presenting images of women in science whom they can relate to, we encourage girls in rural settings to discover their interests and build their confidence. This helps them realize they can choose a similar path for themselves if they want to.

We offer several in-person programs and activities, and since the pandemic we have also developed online versions. The activities include workshops and webinars as well as a program in collaboration with TED-Ed Colombia to further science communication among students. We also have a special program called “Myths and realities” that helps students with the transition from school to university. Besides for students, we also offer trainings and fellowships for teachers. We firmly believe that these kinds of support empower teachers to improve their educational offerings. 

Fundación STEM sin Fronteras (FSsF) and Global Talent Mentoring are now partnering. How can a collaboration between FSsF and Global Talent Mentoring help young STEMM talents in Colombia?
FSsF is focusing on increasing opportunities and enabling more young people in Colombia to access them. The various activities we launched are designed to help youths to increase their interest, acquire skills, and develop their confidence by showing them examples, role models, and paths to follow. Global Talent Mentoring and its worldwide network offers the youths we support an additional chance to immerse themselves in the world of international scientific collaboration. Seeing the youths in our programs, I can confirm that many of them have great potential. I believe that by combining our strengths and resources with Global Talent Mentoring and allowing the youths to connect with international STEMM experts, we can make a lasting effect on the lives of these kids in Latin America. 

I think mentoring is passing your legacy to the people.

How do you think Colombian and Canadian STEMM experts benefit from Global Talent Mentoring by participating as mentors?
Being part of this sort of network is a great advantage for an expert. The experts in the Global Talent Mentoring network share a strong motivation for science, and as such they can help one another.

Above all, mentoring is rewarding. It gives you the chance to give back to society, share your knowledge and experience; and in so doing, you are making a positive impact on someone’s life and our community. The mentor will become part of the success and future of this person and their community, even if it is only one small part of that success. It’s a way of passing your legacy and all that society has given you when you were developing onto future generations.