Outliers - Iñaki Palestino

I have made mistakes I never want to make again... In just a few moments, I inadvertently destroyed four months of cell culture research work.

Hi, my name is Iñaki Palestino, and I am a researcher and science director at Space Makers for the Bartolomeo Space mission, which is competing for a place on the international space station.
When I was 15 years old, I decided to participate in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program in Belgium, an experience in which I formed my own criterion and managed to learn English, French, Italian, and a bit of Russian, Portuguese, Dutch and German. When I went back to Mexico, I started at Tec High School. On graduating, I decided to apply to universities in France as well as Tec de Monterrey. After seeing the Tec research group and the statistics on its offerings, I decided to stay in Mexico to pursue a degree in Nanotechnology and Chemical Sciences.

One of the most important experiences for me was to work at Alvarez & Trujillo Lab;. It was my first research group and also where I met the Master in Science, Everardo, who gave me a more scientific perspective of projects and showed me

how they allow us to create, innovate and think about how to reach the result.

During this experience, I learned that making mistakes is valid. Once I was in charge of a cell culture and forgot to change the culture medium, destroying four months of work. Even though I was able to save a few of them… the rest did not survive.

That was when I learned that failure is possible and feels terrible, but you can’t give up. During this internship, I participated together with Ever in the research and development of monoclonal antibodies based on human cells. This antibody is used to treat Ebola.

In my university life I have supported student groups in the area of logistics of the Tec de Monterrey CAPTEC particle accelerator community and American Chemical Society in social development. At present, I belong to Space Makers, a group of people who are passionate about space and work together on missions that seem practically impossible. I am Science Director in the part of the Space mission that is pursuing nanocomposite synthesis for food preservation, a proposal put forward to Airbus and the UN at the same time, since the projects are linked to each other in Space Makers. I am proud to say that I direct the Kansas mission for the development of nanosatellites and am participating in the development of quantum sensors for future space explorations.Within this environment, I have learned not only how to work in a team, but also how to do things that seem impossible, such as going into space.

I’m not afraid to set my sights high or of making a mistake, but view them as a great opportunity to develop things and meet people who share this goal and, little by little, each of us will gradually change the world. 

I am an Outlier because my story starts at Tec and ends up changing the world.