Dr. Lilian Enríquez-Barreto

Co-Founder · Formative Stage

Dr. Lilian Enríquez-Barreto is a neuroscientist, biochemist, and STEM education leader with over 14 years of laboratory research experience and more than a decade of leadership in STEM education, academic guidance, and university transition support.

Since 2017, she has served as Head of the Science Department, Coordinator of University Entrance Examinations, and Academic Advisor at Liceu Politècnic School (Barcelona) for students pursuing higher education and STEM careers. She earned a PhD in Biochemistry (European Doctorate) from the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Cortical Development Group, with international predoctoral research stays at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, FORTH, in Heraklion, Crete.

She subsequently held postdoctoral positions at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona (UB), the Center for Biomedical Research of La Rioja (CIBIR), and the Institute of Neurosciences at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where her research focused on the neural mechanisms underlying learning, memory, synaptic plasticity and neurodegenerative disorders. Concurrently, she held university teaching appointments in Neurochemistry and Biochemistry, co-supervised Master's theses in Neuroscience, and served on thesis committees; experience that informs her mentorship of graduate-level researchers.

Since 2018, she has designed and led the Scientific Seminar Program, bringing 35+ active researchers into secondary classrooms across eight editions covering computational neuroscience, nanotechnology, cosmology, supercomputing, oncology and related STEM fields. Over the same period, she has mentored nine students from her school who were selected for Bojos per la Ciència (Crazy about Science), the STEM talent-development program of Fundació Catalunya–La Pedrera, guiding them into competitive undergraduate programs in Medicine, Engineering, and Physics, several achieving the Extraordinary Award for University Entrance Examinations (Premio Extraordinario de Selectividad) among the top performers in Catalonia. She has also supervised 20+ advanced Bachillerato research projects enabling students to engage with contemporary topics spanning psychogenomics, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, cardiovascular bioengineering, and cellular senescence in cancer.

Dr. Enríquez-Barreto is co-founder of MAPA STEM, a bilingual (Spanish English) mentorship and career-development initiative grounded in social cognitive neuroscience and shaped by her own experience. She works across the full continuum of STEM development, supporting individuals through critical educational and career transitions, from pre-university planning to postgraduate training and professional pathways within and beyond academia.

She is also an active science communicator who creates interdisciplinary initiatives; these connect neuroscience and other scientific topics with the arts, storytelling, and creative approaches to make science more accessible and engaging for diverse audiences.

"Scientific vocations are not discovered; they are cultivated through curiosity, guidance, and meaningful opportunities for growth."