BUAP opened the Cátedra Magistral Dra. Matilde Montoya in the Salón Barroco of the Edificio Carolino, turning one of Puebla’s most emblematic rooms into the setting for a project aimed at drawing more girls and young women toward science. The first edition brought together Annie Pardo Cemo and Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez, who shared their research lines and their views on the place of women in science before an audience that also followed the ceremony through digital platforms across the state.
Lilia Cedillo Ramírez headed the ceremony, which also drew Alejandro Armenta Mier, representatives of the Congreso del Estado and delegations from nine universities that make up the Consejo Consultivo Académico. Cedillo said Matilde Montoya Lafragua studied in the same Salón Barroco and recalled her as the first woman to receive a medical degree in Mexico, a line that framed the ceremony as both tribute and call to action.
Armenta said Montoya’s legacy lies in the building of opportunities for women, while Pável Gaspar Ramírez said science is an investment for Puebla’s future. That message matched the design of the cátedra itself: not a one-off homage, but a public push to widen the path for girls who still enter science later, and often with fewer examples of women at the center of it.
The event carried a quiet tension beneath the celebration. It honored a pioneering physician in a historic university hall, yet it also made clear that the work Montoya opened more than a century ago is still unfinished. That is why the reach beyond the room mattered: by streaming the ceremony on multiple digital platforms, organizers tried to make the first edition visible to students throughout the state, not only to those already inside the university circle.
At the end of the event, recognitions were delivered to researchers from various institutions, among them Rosalva Loreto López, director of Patrimonio Histórico Universitario and an Investigadora Nacional Emérita of the BUAP. The honors gave the inauguration a practical edge: the cátedra begins with public names, public voices and public recognition, and its next test will be whether that visibility translates into more young women seeing science in Puebla as a place where they belong.