I would like to tell women not to even think there is a barrier. If you think and act as if there is a barrier, it’s much harder to move forward because you feel restricted. If you act as if there is no barrier, you are limitless. That’s how I see it.
Philippines
Erika Fille Legara
Erika is a Senior Scientist and an Associate Professor who also holds an Aboitiz Chair in Data Science at the Asian Institute of Management. She is a practitioner immersed in R&D projects with both government and industry. She has a Ph.D. in Physics and garnered the Excellence in Dissertation Award and the Most Outstanding Graduate Student award for the whole of College of Science, University of the Philippines, Diliman in 201. IIn 2020, she received the Outstanding Young Scientist award (physics and data science); while in 2018, the TOYM award — The Outstanding Young Men honoree (most prestigious leadership award for Filipinos under 40). In 2019, she was a Gen.T Asia lister — list of young leaders who are shaping Asia’s future. Aside from being a scientist and educator, she is also a digital strategy/digital transformation consultant for various public and private organizations.
As a woman from Cotabato in Mindanao, she is proud to achieve what she has today— being a physicist through and through, from a baccalaureate to Ph.D. She was raised by parents, both civil engineers, who were very supportive and nurturing, and never made her feel that gender mattered when she pursued the male-dominated field of high-performance computing.