Esmeralda Mallada

Esmeralda Herminia Mallada Invernizzi (born 10 January 1937 – 12 September 2023) was a Uruguayan astronomer and professor who, for her contributions to that scientific discipline, had been honored with the designation of her name to an asteroid.

Career Mallada was a student of cosmography with Professor Alberto Pochintesta. At the University of the Republic's , she was a colleague of Gladys Vergara, who helped her prepare for the cosmography professorship competition. She became a professor of cosmography and mathematics in secondary education at age 21. She also taught at the university's Faculty of Sciences, where she graduated with a licentiate in astronomy. She is currently retired.

On 16 October 1952, at the invitation of Pochintesta, she was one of the founders of the Association of Amateur Astronomers (AAA) in Uruguay, and in 2015 was made its honorary president. In 2015, the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union designated an asteroid that orbits between Mars and Jupiter with her name, 16277 Mallada. It is the first asteroid to bear the name of a Uruguayan woman astronomer.