Teresa Torres is a Chilean palaeontologist best known for her work linking Antarctic fossils to those found in Patagonia, Chile. She is a professor at the Universidad de Chile, and was one of the first Chilean women to study petrified forests in Antarctica.

Early life and education

Torres grew up in Santiago and graduated as a physics schoolteacher at

Universidad de Santiago The University of Santiago, Chile (Usach) ( es, Universidad de Santiago de Chile) is one of the oldest public universities in Chile. The institution was born as ''Escuela de Artes y Oficios'' (Spanish: ''School of Arts and Crafts'') in 1849 by I ...

. She completed postgraduate studies in Physics at

Rennes University The University of Rennes is a public research university which will be officially reconstituted on 1 January 2023 and located in the city of Rennes, in Upper Brittany, France. The University of Rennes has been divided for almost 50 years, before ...

. She then completed a PhD in Paleobotany at Claude Bernard University, Lyon.

Career and impact

Torres has been a professor at Universidad de Chile since 1971. She was a pioneer for Chilean women working in Antarctica. She has led projects to investigate links between Patagonia and the Antarctic peninsula through the study of fossilised plants and animals. She discovered 200 million year old fossilized leaves in Antarctica that appear similar to the conifers of southern Chile. She has participated in 20 expeditions to Antarctica. In addition to peer-reviewed papers, Torres has also written books on Antarctica and popular palaeobotanical guides. She was a founding Member of Asociación Chilena de Paleontología.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Teresa Chilean women scientists Women paleontologists 20th-century women scientists 21st-century women scientists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Chilean paleontologists