SciFilmIt Hackathon Bogotá 2026 Mentors and speakers
Speakers and Mentoring team
Estas son las personas que nos acompañarán como conferencistas y mentores de arte y ciencia y en esta nueva edición de SciFilmIt hackathon Bogotá 2026. Ellos apoyarán a los grupos en la realización de sus cortometrajes.
These are the people who will accompany us as speakers and art and science mentors in this new edition of SciFilmIt hackathon Bogotá 2026. They will support the groups in the making of their short films.
María Camila Castillo
(Mentor de ciencia / Science mentor – Speaker)
Camila is a Journalist, Microbiologist and Designer. Throughout her life, she has always worried about scientific communication and diffusion. She was the president of The Colombian Association of Microbiology Majors (AUMC) for a year, which is a nationwide association dedicated to promoting and spreading science around Colombia with the help of all 11 universities that offer a Microbiology major in this country. She also has experience with public speaking, participating in events like TEDxYouth, and RedPOP where she has talked about the importance of interdisciplinary work between science, arts and communication. She has worked with multiple universities across Colombia 100% dedicated to creating spaces where science and arts collide. At the moment she works as a consultant in the medical field for various clinics and companies to better communications in research, treatment and palliative care with patients and their families.
Juan Camilo Ríos-Orjuela
(Mentor de ciencia / Science mentor)
Juan Camilo Ríos-Orjuela is a biologist and PhD candidate studying the evolutionary ecology and functional morphology of vertebrates. His research integrates biomechanics, macroevolution, and ecological theory to understand how organisms adapt to diverse environments. Beyond academia, he is passionate about science communication and interdisciplinary collaboration, and has participated in multiple outreach initiatives linking science, storytelling, and the arts. At SciFilmit, he mentors participants in developing scientifically grounded narratives that connect research with broader audiences, transforming complex scientific ideas into compelling visual narratives.
Paulina Herrán
(Mentora de arte / Art mentor)
Political scientist from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), with a postgraduate degree in Journalism from the same university, and a Master’s in Corporate and Institutional Communication Management from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). She has participated as an art mentor in the 2021 and 2023 editions of the SciFilmIt hackathon in Bogotá. She currently works as the Institutional Partnerships Coordinator at the Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Foundation, an entity that is part of the cultural sector of Bogotá’s Mayor’s Office. She has experience in public affairs as a communications, political, and legislative advisor, and in the private sector as a consultant in strategic communications agencies. She had the opportunity to live in Chile and China between 2010 and 2016, where she worked as an editor, translator, and university instructor in foreign languages. In 2018, she was the winner of the VII Narrative Journalism Workshop by the publishing house Fondo de Cultura Económica, for the chronicle “Un muerto ajeno en una cajita perdida”, published in El Tiempo in March 2019. Between 2021 and 2022, she produced and hosted the interview series “Abrebocas.” She has also frequently participated as a panelist in opinion programs available on the following YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/2trx63z4
Diana Carolina Romero Acuña
(Mentora de arte / Art mentor)
Master's degree in History and Theory of Art, Architecture, and the City from the National University of Colombia; Bachelors degree in Humanities and Spanish Language from the Francisco José de Caldas District University. She has experience in primary, secondary, and higher education, guiding areas related to communication, language, and interdisciplinarity. She also has experience in implementing interdisciplinary projects focused on education, the arts, and communication, as well as in individual and collective artistic production in cultural and educational settings. Currently, she is a professor in the Department of Biology at the National Pedagogical University, teaching courses in the humanities and communication components. She coordinates the Bioart research line, advising undergraduate theses and pedagogical practicums related to the teaching of biology and art. She also participates in the museological and museographic activities of the Natural History Museum at that institution. She has developed institutional and inter-institutional research projects at the national and international levels, focused on working with local communities and their inhabitants. She also directs the radio program "Con-ciencia y Tecnología" (Conscience and Technology). The agora for education of La pedagógica radio station of the National Pedagogical University.
Daniela Galeano Camacho
(Mentora de arte / Art mentor – Speaker)
Daniela is a writer, editor and reading promoter. In 2025, she worked for El Malpensante magazine as editorial intern and then as author and researcher for La Malpensante Moda: Arquitectura, diseño y artesanía, she wrote the cover editorial. She is deeply passionate about creating cultural projects, managing social media, talking about art and working in bookstores. She has also invested her time in sharing her knowledge regarding language and literature in workshops for kids in schools, for professionals and for FILBO (Feria Internacional del Libro de Bogotá) assistants. She is a Creative Writing professional from the Universidad Central and has taken part in clubs and curses in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain and the Centro Nacional de las Artes Delia Zapata Olivella in Bogotá, Colombia. She has written two books. Besides her incursion in cultural journaling, her writing skills go from narrative texts
(short stories are her favorites) to poetry and literary essays. Since 2020, she has been a co-founder of the podcast Léxeia, palabras en griego, a space dedicated to conversations about literature, art and creative processes.
Luis Gonzalo Ortiz Pabón
(Mentor de ciencia / Science mentor)
Luis Gonzalo Ortiz Pabón is paleontologist affiliated to Grupo de Investigación en Paleobiología e Historia Natural (GIPHiN) at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. His research focuses on the evolution of birds based on the fossil record. He holds a B.Sc. in Biology from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional and a M.Sc. in Biology from the Universidad de los Andes. His work spans several areas of paleontology, including taphonomy, ichnology, and the paleobiology of vertebrates and invertebrates. He has also contributed to studies on Colombian paleontological heritage and to science outreach initiatives in local communities. He is the author of Reptiles fósiles de Colombia and Alfabetización en Ciencias de la Tierra para la gestión del riesgo, and has served as advisor for books on paleontology and as peer reviewer for educational journals in Colombia. He has teaching experience at the secondary and undergraduate levels, including supervision of undergraduate theses in Biology.
Daniel Eduardo Guardo
(Mentor de música - grabación de sonido y postproducción / Music mentor -
sound recording and post-production)
Daniel Guardo is a music producer and composer from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, currently working on his final project in record production. As a producer he likes to work as a recording engineer, as a mixing and mastering engineer in both classical and contemporary genres, write music, do arrangements and collaborate with peers. His composition studies and experience cover music for visual media, film post production, music for videogames, podcasts, social networks, with both acoustic and electronic resources. He is specially passionate in ambient composition and working with hybrid setups that combine hardware and software instruments and effects. In the last few months he has also been working as a session guitarist (and bassist occasionally), playing and doing arrangements for Alternative Rock and
Indie/Alternative Pop music. Recently he has also been involved in local band "Cartas a Milena", a project founded with a group of friends, where he plays rhythm guitar, writes songs with the rest of the members and produces the band. Daniel had the chance to participate in SciFilmIt Hackathon Bogotá 2022 as the musician for the short film "El silencio de las especies".
Bryam Mateus
(Speaker)
Bryam Mateus is a biologist, ornithologist, and science communicator from Universidad de los Andes. His work focuses on ecology, evolution, and conservation, with a particular interest in Colombia’s biodiversity and its biocultural dimensions. Alongside his research, he has developed a strong trajectory in science communication and public engagement, writing magazine articles about his research and collaborating with
journalists and communicators to share scientific knowledge with broader audiences. He participated in SciFilmIt 2023 and later served as a volunteer instructor in Science Clubs Colombia (2025), mentoring students through hands-on, inquiry-based learning. He also worked as a Young Researcher at Alianza BIOFILIA and Universidad de los Andes, leading science communication initiatives such as exhibitions, workshops, and educational content on biodiversity.
Sebastián Duque
(Speaker)
Sebastián Duque Sánchez is a journalist, audio storyteller, and professor at the Universidad de los Andes and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He has led the production of narrative podcasts for organizations such as Spotify Studios, Dejusticia, El Espectador, Fundación Gabo, RTVC Play, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. His work has won the Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar twice (2019 and 2024) and has been nominated for the Premio Gabo and the Premio Ondas Globales del Podcast. Sebastián’s work sits at the intersection of reporting, audio and live storytelling, and education, with a particular interest in amplifying individual voices and transforming real-life experiences into impactful narratives.