Raquel Muñiz Salazar receives Matilde Montoya Award

Raquel Muñiz Salazar, a researcher from Ensenada, Baja California, has been awarded the ‘Matilde Montoya 2026 Award for Women in Biological and Health Sciences’. She was recognized alongside Diana Sarahí Trujillo Benítez and Claudia Gabriela Gonzaga, all members of the National System of Researchers.

Dr. Muñiz Salazar, who holds a doctorate in Coastal Oceanography from UABC, currently conducts field research on tuberculosis and rickettsia within indigenous, migrant, and agricultural worker communities in San Quintín. Her broader research portfolio includes wheat genetic improvement, the genetic structure of seagrass, and the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in both humans and livestock.

The award was established in Mexico City in 2021 and is named after Matilde Petra Montoya Lafragua, the first woman to earn a medical degree from the National School of Medicine in 1887.