The first edition of the Gladys Award proclaims the winner

• Ane Iturzaeta Agirre (Donostia, 1995) has won the first edition of the Gladys Prize. The jury of the experts Iratxe Esnaola, Paz Cendoya and Elena Lazkano wanted to reward Iturzaeta’s track record and projection with the Gladys Prize.
• In addition to the economic prize, in the next 12 months Iturzaeta will offer talks in schools to promote STEM vocations, help create referents and make women’s work visible in the digital environment.

Donostia 18/10/2021. Ane Iturzaeta Agirre, winner of the Gladys de Estal. Iratxe Esnaola, promoter of the .eus domain, and currently secretary of the board of trustees of the PuntuEUS Foundation, member of the jury, has received the award in the Ada Lovelace room of the Faculty of Informatics. Paz Cendoya, former colleague of Gladys del Estal, and Elena Lazkano, professor of the UPV-EHU Faculty of Informatics, have been part of the jury of experts. The three have highlighted the motivation of the 26-year-old donor, the future projection, the diversity of his professional career and the dissemination with the young. Ane Iturzaeta Agirre has received the award and has had words of thanks:” Thank you for organizing Gladys, I am convinced that in our country there is a lot of talent and what we do has to be spectacular, it will be a pleasure to work on promoting STEM vocations so that the world sees everything we can do young people.”

The PuntuEus Foundation and the Faculty of Informatics of the University of the Basque Country have created the Gladys Prize in collaboration with the Department of Equality of the Foral Deputation of Gipuzkoa and with the sponsorship of the company Danobatgroup. Leire Palacios, project lead at PuntuEUS Foundation, remarks that “it is of vital importance to create referents, but these must be true. The first edition of the Gladys Prize has shown that we have many talented women, fortunately, and we must accommodate them, who are spectacular to create those real benchmarks.”

The Gladys Prize aims to reward young Basque women working in the digital environment, create referents for young people and disseminate their work, as well as to remember the computer scientist Gladys del Estal. This is an initiative promoted by the Faculty of Informatics of the UPV/EHU and the PuntuEUS Foundation, with the support of the Foral Deputation of Gipuzkoa and Danobatgroup.

Winner profile

Ane Iturzaeta Agirre (Donostia, 1995)

As for his academic career, she studied Computer Engineering and Double Degree in Business Administration and Management at the University of Deusto between 2013 and 2018. She currently works at Microsoft as Customer Engineer of the Data&AI group. Winner of the first edition of the Gladys Prize.

As for extraordinary actions, she has participated in projects to promote women in science: #MakeWhatsNext initiative, Zientzia Project Ambassador (UPV/EHU) in the 2016-2017 course, mentor of the WONNOW Prize winners (STEAM), has participated in the Hacktons and taught as a visiting professor in different university studies.

In the future, she wants to look more deeply into the world of artificial intelligence and supporting companies and public administrations in their digital transformation.