Tarsy Carballas

María Tarsy Carballas Fernández (born 2 June 1934 Taboada) is a Spanish scientist. She is a pioneer in the study of soils in the humid temperate zone of Spain. In 2009, she was awarded the Castelao Medal. In 2012, she won a Chemical Excellence Award for a study of forest fire prevention. In 2012, she won the María Josefa Wonenburger Planells Prize.

She has been a member of the Agrarian Sciences Area Commission and the Government Board. She does research at the Galicia Biological Mission, in Santiago de Compostela and is a recognized expert in forest fire prevention.

Life
Born in 1934 in Taboada, Spain, Carballas had a strong desire to become a journalist, but it was a difficult career for women to enter into at the time. Instead, she decided to focus on science, graduating from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1958 with a pharmacy degree. She then earned a chemical sciences degree in 1963 and a doctorate in pharmacy in 1964 from the University of Nancy. She began working in the 1960s, at the Spanish National Research Council, researching soil science. She researched solutions to recover land in areas affected by fires.