Elisa Torres Durney

Elisa Torres Durney is a Chilean social entrepreneur and STEM activist. She is the founder and executive director of Girls in Quantum. In 2023 she became one of the 10 best students in the world (Top 10 Global Student Prize).

STEM Activism
Torres's interests have always been broad, taking her into the world of theater and the arts from a young age. But science and languages are her passion. She first became interested in quantum computing when she enrolled in IBM's Qubit x Qubit Coding School, where she met and subsequently invited women and young people from around the globe to be a part of Girls in Quantum.

Additionally, at the age of sixteen, she established Girls in Quantum, an international network of students whose goal is to provide girls and adolescents with free access to quantum computing, regardless of their place of birth, nationality, or financial means.

Since then, she has given guest lectures at both domestic and international STEM conferences, while broadening her knowledge with different programs, such as Young Global Scholars at Yale University, Future Scholar Program at the University of Cambridge, and the Junior Academy of the New York Academy of Sciences.

In April 2023 she collaborated with an initiative that was created to celebrate World Quantum Day 2023 and answer quantum science related questions submitted to Q-12 partners by teachers and students. The National Q-12 Education Partnership receives support from NSF, the Boeing Corporation, NASA, Caltech, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and IBM.

Torres was a member of the technical staff of the "Digital Revolution" panel of the National Council of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation for Development (CTCI), along with leading academics and professionals from the technology industry. In representation of Chilean students, the technical panel is part of the "Chile makes the Future" (#ChileCreaFuturo) trend anticipation exercise, which aims to develop recommendations for the best design of public policies. Results were presented to the president of the Republic of Chile in June 2023.

In November 2023 Torres was part of the organizing committee of the first Spanish-speaking quantum computing school Qiskit Fall fest.

Public Speaking
Elisa has spoken at several conferences around the world, including Quantum Latino, IBM Innovation Day, El Mercurio's Protagonists of the Future, Women's Innovation Day of the Women Economic Forum, the International Festival of Social Innovation, Quantum Basel, EY Strategic Forum, TED X, The Lancet, IEEE STEM Summit 2023, Economist Impact Commersialisinq Quantum, among others.

Awards and recognition
Her work in scientific dissemination has earned recognition from:


 * Forbes Chile - 30 Most Powerful Women 2023
 * Yale Yale Young Global Scholar
 * Appreciation letter from the President Office of Science and Technology Policy. (The White House, US Government)
 * G100 Country Chair STEM Education (Women Economic Forum)
 * Outstanding Performance Award (New York Academy of Sciences)
 * 50 best students in the world
 * 100 Women leader 2022, El Mercurio y Mujeres empresarias