The Acting Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, announced this Friday the winners of the 2023 National Research Awards, the most important in Spain in the field of scientific research. Among the winners stands out the biologist Luis Enjuanes, director of the coronavirus laboratory of the National Biotechnology Center, who is developing a Spanish vaccine against Covid 19. The prizes are worth 30,000 euros for each modality.
Since it was first introduced in 2022, a distinction was made between young and experienced researchers. Of the 114 traditionally admitted candidates, 90 were men and 24 were women. The average age of the winners was 61 years. For those under 40, 185 applications were reviewed, 97 from men and 88 from women. The average age of the winners was 37 years. Four women and 16 men won.
The jury consisted of a total of 32 women and 28 men. Each modality consisted of three men and three women, except humanities, law, and economics and social sciences, in which four women and two men participated.
The winners by category are:
Medicine and health sciences
Luis Enjuanes Sánchez received the Gregorio Marañón Prize for the “excellence and impact of his work.” The biologist has become a reference in virology through his contributions to the knowledge of the replication and transcription of the coronavirus as well as his research in the field of vaccines. He is Ad Honorem Professor of Virology and Director of the Coronavirus Laboratory at the National Center for Biotechnology of the CSIC.
The Gabriella Morreale Prize for Young People was awarded to Rodrigo Fernández Jiménez for research on preventive medicine and current challenges in the field of cardiology. The high applicability of his contributions was emphasized. He is Deputy Health Scientist Group Leader in the Clinical Research Division of the National Cardiovascular Research Center (CNIC).
biology
For his “brilliant life career,” the ministry awards the Santiago Ramón y Cajal Prize to José Lopez Barneo, Professor Emeritus of Physiology and Biophysics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Seville. Lopez Barneo has made pioneering contributions to breakthroughs of great importance in the fields of cellular and molecular physiology and neurobiology, such as understanding the mechanisms of regulation of oxygen respiration, the discovery of stem cells in the carotid body, and the development of new strategies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases diseases.
The ERC Starting Grant researcher at the Institute of Physical Chemistry “Blas Cabrera” of the CSIC, Miguel Ángel Mompeán García, was awarded the “Margarita Salas” Youth Prize. He was a pioneer in combining solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and biosolids to characterize the formation of biomolecular condensates and their conversion to amyloids. His discoveries on the structure and function of amyloid have opened new avenues for the diagnosis and treatment of pathologies associated with cellular aging and viral infections.
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Engineering and Architecture
The Leonardo Torres Quevedo Prize was awarded to Francisco Javier Llorca Martínez, Professor of Materials Science at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, for his research in Computational Materials Engineering. The ministry has highlighted its contribution to the development of multi-scale modeling strategies that have had “major impact on various industrial sectors”.
Daniel García González received the award in the “Young Talent” category Matilde Ucelay for her fundamental contributions to the conceptualization of multifunctional and intelligent materials that have “a disruptive and interdisciplinary character”. García González is a full professor in the Department of Continuous Media Mechanics and Structural Theory at the Carlos III University in Madrid.
Humanities
The director of the Institute of Cultural Heritage Sciences of the CSIC, Felipe Criado Boado, received the Ramón Menéndez Pida Humanities Award in the senior category. The ministry highlights its recent studies on “how the world we build and inhabit changes our minds and the way we process information.” Pioneers and innovators in archeology who have contributed to our understanding of how human societies have interacted and changed the landscape throughout history.
In the young humanities category, the head of the Department of Art and Heritage History of the Institute of History of the CSIC, Idoia Murga Castro, received the award. The jury highlighted his career and his inter- and transdisciplinary leadership, which have made him “a reference in dance studies”. Murga Castro was a pioneer with the opening of the first choreological laboratory.
Sciences and technologies of material resources
Innovation and informative work in the field of global change research earned Josep Peñuelas Reixach the Alejandro Malaspina Award. The ministry has highlighted his extensive scientific career. He is director of the Global Ecology Unit at the Center for Ecological Research and Forest Applications Consortium (CREAF).
In the “Young Young Talent” category, Marta Martínez Sanz received the Ángeles Alvariño National Prize for her multidisciplinary research, which had “outstanding social and economic relevance from an ecological perspective.” Martínez is an OPI scientist in the Food Proteins Group of the Food Sciences Research Institute (CIAL), a joint center of CSIC and UAM.
Physical Materials and Earth Sciences
The Blas Cabrera National Research Award in this area was awarded to Ángel Rubio Secades for his work in computational solid state physics, in which he predicted new properties of nanoscale materials and, more recently, new non-equilibrium phases of matter. The conceptual and methodological advances of his work have transformed computational materials science and opened new areas of experimental research. He is director of the theory department at the Max Planck Society Institute in Hamburg and a distinguished researcher at the Flatiron Institute of the Simons Foundation in New York and at the University of the Basque Country.
The Felisa Martín Bravo National Research Prize for Young People was awarded to Francisco Pelayo García de Arquer for his contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry and materials science, with applications in the production of clean energy and the development of optoelectronic elements. He is head of the research group at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO).
Chemical Science and Technologies
The Enrique Moles Prize was awarded to Jesús Jiménez Barbero for his scientific career and recognizes his contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the molecular recognition processes between carbohydrates and proteins. He is scientific director at CIC BIOGUNE.
The María Teresa Toral Youth Prize was awarded to Silvia Osuna Oliveras for her innovative and original contributions to the development of new computational protocols for the design of new enzymes that have great transfer potential to productive tissue. She is an ICREA Research Professor at the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis, University of Girona (UdG).
Technology transfer
Javier García Martínez has received the Juan de la Cierva Prize for his career of contributions to the field of nanomaterial chemistry. He is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Alicante.
The Ángela Ruiz Robles Youth Prize was awarded to Gonzalo Murillo Rodríguez for his contribution to knowledge generation and transfer in the field of the use of electromechanical nanogenerators and the recovery of environmental energy and smart materials. He is a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics of the CSIC.
Mathematics and information and communication technologies
Diego Cordoba Gazolaz, Research Professor at CSIC and Scientific Director SO at ICMat, has received the Julio Rey Pastor Award for his research in the field of fluid mechanics equations. In particular for his studies on the formation of singularities in incompressible fluids, which paved the way for a variety of industrial applications.
In the Young category, the María Andresa Casamayor Prize was awarded to Xavier Ros Otón for the development of new and fundamental techniques in the area of partial differential equations. He is an ICREA Research Professor and Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Barcelona.
Law, economics and social sciences
The professor of economics at the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies Foundation (CEMFI) received the Pascual Madoz Award for his contributions to the field of econometrics. According to Science, the results were fundamental to better understanding employment dynamics, business productivity and economic growth.
Mónica Martínez Bravo, Professor of Economics at the Foundation Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI), was awarded the Clara Campoamor Prize for her contributions in the fields of economic development and political economy. His work excels in areas such as the democratization and quality of political institutions as well as the evidence-based formulation of social policy measures.
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