“Here the professors encourage us to dream big”

Laura Cabrera has always been very curious. However, growing up in a poor neighbourhood of Armenia, the capital of the Quindìo region, in Colombia, her thirst for knowledge often went unsatisfied. “I wanted to understand the behaviour of the world, but whenever I asked questions to my parents or to any member of my family, they never had the answers,” she says.

If curiosity is what motivated her, determination is what helped Cabrera reach her goals. “My mom always encouraged me to study and I knew that was the only way for me to give my family and myself a better future. But they could not afford to pay for my university and I always knew that I needed to work hard to get there,” she explains. Work hard she did, and she got a studentship from the Colombian government to study at the University of Quindìo, in her home city.

Once at university, Cabrera had to study hard to close the gap between what she had learnt in high school and what was expected from her. “Although some of the teachers in my neighbourhood were very good, there was only so much that they could do in that challenging context and when I arrived at university, I realized that I lacked some of the basic knowledge in math and physics,” she explains, adding, “It was really difficult, but I believe in God and that has always helped me.”

Later on, towards the end of her bachelor’s degree, Cabrera was selected to do a fully funded internship at the Brazilian Space Agency. There, she worked for the Catarina Constellation mission that uses satellites to monitor the climate in the region of Santa Catarina, South Brazil. It was her first real research experience and what motivated her to choose to study earth system physics at ICTP.

“The first time I applied to the ICTP Diploma Programme, I did not get in,” she says, adding, “I did not believe it was possible then, and I think that affected my application.” But she did not give up and spent one year working as a teacher at an international school, all the while studying to strengthen her application before giving it another try. The hard work paid off and last September she arrived in Trieste for the first time to start one year of advanced training at ICTP.

“It was tough, but being so passionate about what we were studying helped,” Cabrera says. “Here we also benefitted from psychological support, which I had never had before. It helped me understand myself and my emotions, and it was of great support throughout this intense year,” she recounts, adding, “And the professors here always encourage us to dream big. They are always trying to bring out the best in us.”

Now that the programme is reaching its end, for her final project Cabrera is working with ICTP Research Scientist Riccardo Farneti to investigate how climate change is affecting the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), the main current system in the Atlantic Ocean. “Scientists are concerned that the influx of freshwater from ice melt could disrupt the AMOC, a key system in moderating weather patterns” she explains. “In our simulations, we observe not only a weakening of the AMOC under freshwater anomalies, but also we are able to see how it recovers in time in the model.”

Cabrera’s interest in the ocean is not only scientific. Having always dreamt of living by the ocean, living in Trieste somehow made that dream come true. “Although it was already dark outside, the night I arrived in Trieste, I kept searching for the sea everywhere,” she remembers. But what has made this year most memorable for Cabrera are the friendships she was able to forge with the other students. “I loved learning and I loved experiencing life in Europe, but the friends that I made here will last for the rest of my life,” she says, adding, “They have become my family during these months away from home and leaving them will be the most difficult thing now.”

In October, Cabrera will start a PhD in Tallin, Estonia. Although in her new life there she will have to adjust to yet another new country, she is looking forward to the experiences that await her. “Leaving Trieste will be hard, but I am really happy about this opportunity. What I have worked on for my final project was key to getting this position and I look forward to all the new skills that I will learn there.”