“Inma Moreno likes to be aware of what she does, to enjoy every little thing and every little moment in the company of her loved ones”. For those of you who still don’t know her, this is a perfect summary of the “IBEC Face of the month”.
Inma Moreno is from Almeria and just 3 years ago, she joined IBEC in the Core Facilities Department, after having studied genetics at the UAB. The Core Facilities team is a small family where all its members do very different tasks and when researchers don’t know who to turn to, they knock at the Core Facilities Unit’s door where they find the help they are looking for, they are a very important support point for our researchers.
Broadly speaking, they administer, manage and maintain the good condition of the laboratories, the processes that are carried out in it, the equipment and promote good practices and the correct use of spaces. Without going any further, to guarantee that everything works correctly and is in good condition, Inma manages almost 300 “Work Orders” a year, which range from changing a pressure gauge to reporting defects such as leaks or the air conditioning malfunction.
Core facilities is one of the most visible faces of IBEC. When new members arrive at our institute, Inma and her colleagues are in charge of showing them all the laboratories and their hidden secrets. Specifically, each month they perform their famous labtours to about 15 people on average, which means about 180 people a year.
According to Inma, her greatest achievement is feeling satisfied with the work done. Her work is not always “visible” from the outside, but that does not diminish its importance, on the contrary, the little things from day to day are what make the difference and what make everything work smoothly at IBEC. An achievement does not have to be recognized from the outside, nor does it have to be something punctual and super extraordinary, and therefore, Inma’s greatest achievement at IBEC is putting all her effort into work so that things work out well.
As in science and in life in general, not everything goes according to plan, there are factors that can never be controlled. The results are not always what you expect, and you do not receive the feedback you would like, but as Inma says: “If you put your best intention and always give your best, that is already an achievement in itself, even if it’s nothing extraordinary.” And she does have a point.
For Inma, work and personal life are closely linked, what can happen to you in one of the areas inevitably affects the other. To try to cope as best as possible with these two aspects of her life, she likes to learn and apply tools to understand people and improve the communication. In her workspace, she deals with many people, very different from each other with very different backgrounds, and she is the first person they are going to turn to. For this reason, training in how to communicate and understand people seems to be vital and very useful for the balance of both her professional and personal life.
Leaving work aside, Inma likes eating and trying new restaurants, although she is not much of a cook, and she likes to accompany her meals with some rare craft beer. She also likes to walk aimlessly for a long time, listening to music or to ASMR videos, what on earth is ASMR? Well, it’s the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, which can be described as the combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin, which gives you good vibes. Maybe we should all give it a go! During the confinement, one of the things she missed the most was this freedom to be able to leave the house for a randomly walk with no rush to return home. For Inma, enjoying little things like this to the fullest are what makes her happy.