Curriculum Vitae:

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Karín obtained her B.Sc. in Physics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She was a Fulbright Fellow for a year at the Leiden Sterrewacht (Astronomy Institute) in the Netherlands, after which she moved to California to do her PhD in Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Afterwards, she spent 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow with the support from the Astronomy & Astrophysics National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Carnegie Observatories, also in California. Since 2011 she is a professor at the Valongo Observatory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In 2015 she was awarded the “L’Oréal UNESCO ABC Award for Women in Science” in the area of Physics. She is today very proud to be recognized as a “Cientista de Nosso Estado” by Rio de Janeiro’s research funding agency. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics in Extragalactic Astrophysics, with emphasis on formation and evolution of galaxies. Her main interests are: panchromatic study of extreme galaxies in young and distant universe; indirect study of typical galaxies in the distant universe by identifying analog populations in the nearby universe; and the characterization of stellar structures (e.g., spiral arms, bars, bulges) present in local galaxies. Mother of two young daughters, an ambassador of the Brazilian “Parent in Science” movement and current coordinator of her university’s Working Group on Parenting and Gender Equity, she also devotes great energies towards a more inclusive and diverse scientific community.