 Her work brought her election to the Latin American Academy of Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (TWAS), and in 2006 she became the first member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA from Ecuador.She received the L’Oreal-Unesco Prize for Women in Science for Latin America.Eugenia's life shows us how identifying an interesting biological problem and unraveling its mechanism can bring science to any country that allows for creativity.