Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain present the National Research Prizes

2019.2.21

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At an event held at the El Pardo Royal Palace on Thursday, King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain presented the National Research Prizes, accompanied by the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque, and numerous representatives from the scientific community, academia and innovation and business areas in Spain.

The prizes were created in 1982, and represent the most important recognition in Spain for outstanding scientific research. Following a break of four years, they have been called once more with a view to resuming and strengthening the function for which they were created: to provide an example and recognition of scientific excellence.

The aim of the National Research Prizes is to highlight the merit of researchers and investigators of Spanish nationality who are carrying out notable work in scientific fields of international relevance and who contribute exceptionally to the progress of science, better knowledge of human beings and how they live together, technology transfer and the progress of Humanity.

The jury was composed of a balanced 44% of women and 56% of men chosen from important scientists in the different areas of knowledge. They announced their decisions on 5 December and the minister, Pedro Duque, then notified the winners of the jury's ruling and congratulated them on behalf of the government.

The jury valued the merits of each candidate in a competitive process and announced the following judgements by applying the principles of openness, transparency, equality and non-discrimination:

• The National Blas Cabrera Prize for the Physical, Material and Earth Sciences. Winner: Rafael Rebolo López, an astrophysicist who is currently Director of the Canary Islands Institute for Astrophysics (Spanish acronym: IAC). The jury awarded him the prize unanimously, highlighting in its ruling "the importance of his contributions to the knowledge of the cosmos. Of particular note are his pioneering contributions to the discovery of giant exoplanets and super-Earths, the decay of stars into black holes and the detection of microwave background radiation and its anisotropy (the general property of matter according to which qualities such as elasticity, temperature, conductivity and speed of light, etc. vary according to the direction in which they are examined)."

• The National Julio Rey Pastor Prize for Mathematics and Information and Communication Technologies. Winner: Ramón López de Mántaras, an IT specialist and physicist, who is Research Professor at CSIC [National Scientific Research Council] and current Director of the CSIC Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research (Spanish acronym: IIIA-CSIC). The jury awarded him the prize unanimously "as a pioneer in research in a wide range of areas of artificial intelligence, particularly in pattern recognition and case-based reasoning, which has led to novel applications in design, diagnostics and music; and for his extensive international leadership and service to the artificial intelligence community." He is the first scientist in the field of artificial intelligence to have received highly significant awards from the three main international associations specific to the field. According to the jury, "it can be said that he has created a school in Spain in the field of artificial intelligence and put our country on the international map in the field."

• The National Alejandro Malaspina Prize for the Science and Technology of Natural Resources. Winner: Pedro Jordano Barbudo, a Doctor in Biology who is Research Professor at CSIC in the Biological Station of Doñana (Spanish acronym: EBD-CSIC). The jury awarded him the prize unanimously for "his robust and persevering career in research, the major impact of his work, and his involvement in the European Research Area. His work combines ecology and (co)evolution through the study of interactions between plants and animals, using network theory, modern molecular tools and new statistical weapons that provide a framework ensuring the rigour of his conclusions. It is also worth noting his scientific leadership in Spain and abroad. He has earned international prestige in his studies on the interrelations and structure of ecological networks."

• The National Enrique Moles Prize for Science and Chemical Technology. Winner: Luis Liz Marzán, a chemist who is Research Professor at Ikerbasque and Scientific Director of the Cooperative Research Centre in Biomaterials CIC biomaGUNE. The jury awarded him the prize unanimously "for his numerous significant contributions to the fields of Colloidal Chemistry and Nanoscience. His activity has been dedicated to opening up new scientific frontiers in nanoscience from a chemical point of view, with the aim of resolving emerging problems of great technological importance, in particular in the biomedical field."

• The National Juan de la Cierva Prize for Technological Transfer. Winner: Pablo Artal Soriano, a physicist who is Professor of Optics at the University of Murcia. The jury awarded him the prize unanimously "for his pioneering contributions to the use of innovative methods in measuring and correcting vision and their impact on ocular health. Also notable is his very high level of scientific and technological knowledge, which has been recognised both in Spain and around the world."

Invitation for 2019 candidates

A call for candidates will be issued in 2019 for the remaining five categories of the National Research Prizes, which will be awarded separately, as has become normal. They are: the National Gregorio Marañón Prize for Medicine; the National Santiago Ramón y Cajal Prize for Biology; the National Leonardo Torres Quevedo Prize for Engineering; the National Pascual Madoz Prize for Law and the Economic and Social Sciences; and the National Ramón Menéndez Pidal Prize for the Humanities.

Non official translation