Years of hard work always yield their reward. As the saying goes, “you reap what you sow”. Ana has been sowing the best seeds possible for many years, and that can be seen today. Leader of an amazing team in Valencia, with countless projects and papers, always travelling and sharing her knowledge. Getting into crazy projects (because who would think about sending a squid to space if not her… This story will come out soon, I promise 😉 ), ambitious consortiums like the LongTrec initiative, and having the eye for the next best thing (our beloved SQANTI).
Now, she has this reward as her newest achievement. Ana has been elected Vice-President of the ISCB. This marks a considerable milestone in her career, highlighting the key role she plays in the world of Computational Biology. From Janyuary 2026, and for the following five years, she will lead the institution together with the elected president Bonnie Berger. What a dream team!
Ana, Bonnie and the rest of the board, will work hand by hand to guide the ISCB during these uncertain times for science. The two challegenges that, according to Ana, will be major in the following years are the use and development of a responsible and sustainable AI in science and the defence of the scientific method. In the first place, AI has come to stay. As any other other technolgy, it offers “great opportunities, as well as a set of pressing responsibilities“, in Ana’s own words. In computational biology, AI has transformed the field and the way we look at complex data. However, our new Vice-President indicates that “the transformation also depends on the continous availability of open and shared datasets, which must keep being a cornerstone of our field“. At the same time, we must not forget the huge environmental impact of this tools in the environemnt. And if we know anything about Ana, is that she is a big defender of sustainability and the environment, as you can see with her LongTREC of cycling.
Moreover, Ana states that “we are witnessing a worrying decline in trust in science“. People question data and scientific rigor in favor of perosnal or political interest, and that is a big threat not only to our ability to generate new knowledge, but to the very definition of truth . Therefore, Ana’s main goal is to “defend the scientific method and its values“, something “essential“.
From the ConesaLab we will be walking together wth Ana this new uncharted road for her, supporting and cheering at every milestone. We want to express our support in the good and bad days, because we are complety sure that she will rock this new position as she always has!