About
Highly complex fields
call for the right qualifications
Hi there! I’m Cristina Bouzas, BsC, MA, the face behind Scientia Translations.
I’m a Canadian Spanish biologist and biomedical language service provider with 10 years of experience working as a medical, scientific, and pharmaceutical translator, proofreader, linguistic validator, and language specialist, among a few other roles. In addition to an undergraduate degree in Biology, I hold two master’s degrees in Medical and Healthcare Translation with top grades.
I help contract research organizations, companies, universities, translation agencies, manufacturers, and other interested parties convey their scientific message across language, cultural, and register barriers in a timely, precise, and regulatory compliant manner.
Hi there! I’m Cristina Bouzas, BsC, MA, the face behind Scientia Translations.
I’m a Canadian Spanish biologist and biomedical language service provider with 10 years of experience working as a medical, scientific, and pharmaceutical translator, proofreader, linguistic validator, and language specialist, among a few other roles. In addition to an undergraduate degree in Biology, I hold two master’s degrees in Medical and Healthcare Translation with top grades.
I help contract research organizations, companies, universities, translation agencies, manufacturers, and other interested parties convey their scientific message across language, cultural, and register barriers in a timely, precise, and regulatory compliant manner.
I firmly believe that patients should be empowered to participate in their own wellbeing, which is why I’m particularly passionate about bridging communication gaps between experts and lay people by using plain and gender-neutral language. Due to the impact that this disease has had on many of my loved ones, I’m also particularly drawn to projects relating to cancer research.
My working languages are English (UK or US), Spanish (Spain), and Galician.
So you want to get to know me a bit better? Let’s start from the beginning then!
I was born in Málaga (Spain) to a German‑Canadian mother and a Galician father. Thanks to my parent’s work in the field of tourism, I was raised in a multilingual and multicultural context (my mother fluently spoke a whopping five languages!), and was brought up speaking both English and Spanish. In fact, despite living in Spain, I attended an exclusively English‑speaking elementary school through the age of 12. I then moved up north to Galicia, where I learned and perfected my command of Galician during my high school years, eventually obtaining the CELGA 4 certificate of excellence in the Galician language.
Driven by my long-standing inquisitive nature and my eagerness to know how life works, I chose to pursue education in Life Sciences, completing a 5-year licenciate degree (equivalent to a Master’s degree) in Biology from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). These studies enabled me to gain valuable knowledge and experience in fundamental scientific subjects (Microbiology, Genetics, Immunology, Organography, Cytology, Histology, and so on), and to become acquainted with laboratory devices and protocols during my practical training. Owing to my excellent command of English, I was often approached by PhD students and professors requesting to have their work edited or translated for publication in scientific journals, thus sparking my interest in the field of translation.
After completing my degree, I combined work as an English teacher with occasional freelance translations, while pursuing specialized training in the field of biomedical translation. Over the past decade, in addition to completing two master’s degrees in Medical and Healthcare Translation, as well as several courses on biomedical and pharmaceutical translation, I’ve studied numerous specialized programs relating to medicine and pharmacology with a view to broadening my skills in all these fields.
My in-depth knowledge and expertise in the field of science, my native command of the three languages I translate to and from, as well as my efficiency and drive have allowed me to work exclusively as a biomedical language specialist since 2013, with particular focus on clinical trial documentation and cancer research.
- Bilingual Spanish-Galician Degree in Biology (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 2012)
- Certificate of Proficiency in English (University of Cambridge, 2012)
- Medical and Pharmaceutical Translation (Estudio Sampere, 2015)
- Medical Translating Certificate Course (MITIO, 2018)
- Typographical Syntax and Style Guidelines of the Spanish Language (ISTRAD, 2019)
- Master’s Degree in Medical Translation (Aulasic, 2021)
- Official Master’s Degree in Medical and Healthcare Translation (Universitat Jaume I, 2021)
Courses
- Writing in the Sciences, Standford University (Coursera, 2015)
- Understanding Cancer Metastasis, John Hopkins University (Coursera, 2015)
- Anatomy of the Abdomen and Pelvis, a journey from basis to clinic, Leiden University Medical Center (Coursera, 2016)
- Medical Translation Workshop with Pablo Mugüerza (Aulasic, 2018)
- Style Guidelines for Drafting and Translating Scientific Texts (Aulasic, 2018)
- Biostatistics for Medical Translators and Interpreters (Aulasic, 2018)
- Translation of Clinical Trial Protocols (Aulasic, 2019)
- Mandatory Terminology in the Pharmaceutical Industry (Aulasic, 2019)
- Translation of Medical Devices (Aulasic, 2020)
- Translation in the Pharmaceutical Field (Aulasic, 2021)
- Chemistry for Medical and Patent Translators (Aulasic, 2021)
- Fundamentals of Medicine for Translators and Interpreters (Translastars, 2021)
- Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials, John Hopkins University (Coursera, 2022)
Webinars and Seminars
- The ABCs of medical translation: strategies to identify, translate and manage acronyms and abbreviations (ProZ, 2017)
- SOAP notes and medical charts: the nitty gritty of medical reports (ProZ, 2017)
- Where regulatory rules apply: translating drug leaflets, packaging, and labelling (ProZ, 2017)
- Medical journals: translating like a writer, not a scientist (ProZ, 2017)
- Become a proficient biomedical translator through the lifecycle of a new drug – parts I and II (ProZ, 2017)
- The pharmacokinetics of drugs commonly studied during clinical trials (ProZ, 2018)
- The anatomy of a clinical trial protocol: important concepts and essential terminology for accurate translation (ProZ, 2018)
- How to translate a summary of product characteristics (ProZ, 2018)
- Clinical trials and medical documentation: resources and translation strategies for new translators (ProZ, 2018)
- Unpicking and SmPC (eCPD, 2018)
- Informed consent: translation and correction workshop (ProZ, 2018)
- EMA templates and EU terminology for medical translators – parts I and II (eCPD, 2018)
- Medical devices translation life cycle (parts I and II): pre-market and regulatory requirements/to-market and post-market regulatory requirements (ProZ, 2019)
- Prevent the unecpected when translating medical content: get prepared for them! (ProZ, 2019)
- Specialized translation from the perspective of the biomedical text genre (Tremedica, 2020)
- MedDRA for medical translators: step-by-step explanation of its usefullness and use (Tremedica, 2020)
- How to create a termbase (Tremedica, 2020)
- Introduction to the linguistic validation of patient-reported outcomes (Tremedica, 2021)
- Terminology extraction workshop (Tremedica, 2021)
- Fields and horizons in biomedical translation I: pharmaceutical translation, (Asetrad, 2021)
- Fields and horizons in biomedical translation II: biochemical terminology (Asetrad, 2021)
- Fields and horizons in biomedical translation III: veterinary translation (Asetrad, 2021)
- Graphic medicine and translation (Asetrad, 2021)
- Pharmacovigilance and drug safety (Tremedica, 2021)
- Translating diagnostic imaging (ProZ, 2022)
- How to translate veterinary datasheets (Asetrad, 2022)
- How to translate EMA forms (Asetrad, 2022)
- Quality assurance (translation and translators) (ProZ, 2022)
- The patient’s perspective: best practices for translating ICFs and PILs (ProZ, 2022)
- Everything you need to improve your quality system now! – parts I and II (ProZ, 2022)
- International translation standards: main quality standards in the translation industry (ProZ, 2022)
- Efficiency and translation memory management for medical and pharmaceutical translation (ProZ, 2022)
- Advanced Microsoft Word for translators: gaining productivity with a basic tool (ProZ, 2022)
- Written immunology in Spanish (Tremedica, 2022)
- The medical translator as a post-editor: challenges and strengths in a profession that we do not choose (Juan Macarlupu, 2022)
- Cleaning up your translations with Transtools+ (Lion Translation Academy, 2022)
- Spanish language proficiency: main challenges of proofreading Spanish texts (Juan Macarlupu, 2022)
- Using PubMed effectively in your medical scientific translations (ProZ, 2022)
- Turbocharge terminology extraction with Sketch Engine (Techforword, 2022)
- Patient surveys: diversity in medical translation (ProZ, 2023)
- Advanced Internet search techniques for medical translators (ProZ, 2023)
- Morphosyntactic correction: frequently asked questions and new Spanish grammar rules (Juan Macarlupu, 2023)
Congresses and Events
- ProZ International Translation Day 2021
- ProZ International Translation Day 2022
- Innovation in Translation Summit, 2022
- Innovation in Interpreting Summit, 2022
- Segunda Semana de la Traducción Freelance, 2022
- Día Internacional de la Corrección con Asetrad, 2022
- Congreso Internacional sobre Traducción, Medicina Gráfica y Comunicación médico-paciente, 2022
- Adobe PDF
- AntConc
- Archivarius
- Excel
- Intelliweb Search
- LF Aligner
- MemoQ
- Memsource
- PerfectIt
- Sketch Engine
- Stilus
- Transtools
- Transtools+
- Word
- AMA Manual of Style 10th edition
- Cosnautas
- Diccionario de terminología médica
- Diccionario de uso del español (María Moliner), edición manual
- Diccionario médico-biológico, histórico y etimológico
- Diccionario politécnico de la lengua española e inglesa
- EDQM Standard Terms
- Global Medical Device Nomenclature
- Gramática y ortografía básicas de la lengua española
- Manual de estilo de la lengua española 5ª edición
- Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA)
- Stedman’s Medical Dictionary
One can only translate
what they can fully understand
Why can you trust me with your texts?
Trilingual and
tricultural
In addition to being well‑traveled, I was born and raised in a tricultural setting, which has not only enabled me to boast a native command of Spanish, English, and Galician, but also to be strongly aware of cultural differences.
10 years of experience
in the field
I started translating in my senior year of university, having devoted myself full time to this career since 2013.
Strong scientific
background
Holding a five year bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences under my belt enables me to understand highly complex scientific content. Moreover, thanks to the many hours of hands on training completed during this time, I possess a great understanding of laboratory protocols and equipment.
Direct contact with
field experts
Besides being a member of the most prestigious translators’ associations, I am privileged to be in direct contact with other biologists, physicians, pharmacists, and researchers who can help me resolve conceptual queries.
Continuous professional
development
In a field as rapidly advancing as science, it is paramount to keep abreast of the latest advancements. That is why I dedicate a good part of my time to completing training courses and attending webinars, congresses, and other events for translators and scientists. You can check out an overwhelmingly long list of the training programs I’ve completed here.
Cutting-edge
resources
In my commitment to delivering high quality work, I’ve equipped myself with a comprehensive suite of resources. My toolkit of specialized assets includes parallel text aligners, term mining software, and a broad range of dictionaries to ensure adequacy of the terminology used for a particular subject matter. I also take advantage of computer assisted tools (MemoQ being my go-to) to produce consistent and fast translations. As a final step of my process, I use quality assurance tools to guarantee error-free texts.
Punctuality and
responsiveness
We all know how precious time is! The perfectionist in me thrives with schedules and organization, so you can rest assured that I’ll go above-and-beyond to meet your strictest deadlines and tend to all inquiries within one business day.
Confidentiality
protection
As a professional translator, I take confidentiality seriously and abide by the codes of professional conduct of the prominent associations of which I am a member. To ensure that the privacy of all information processed during the course of my work remains uncompromized, I only use personal equipment secured with anti¬-virus software to protect against unwanted intrusions.
Comprehensive quality
assurance process
Accuracy and precision is essential in the medical and pharmaceutical industry due to the potentially life threatening consequences that certain mistakes can have. To ensure that my projects are of the highest quality, I run all texts through an exhaustive quality assurance tool assisted process to verify adherence to client glossaries and regulatory standards, as well as to confirm the absence of changes of sense, mistranslations, grammar or syntax errors, and typographic or stylistic mistakes.
My business in numbers
10
years of
experience
100%
happy
customers
600+
hours
of CPD
5+
million words
translated
and proofread
1000+
cups
of coffee
