All in a speech aimed at an eminently scientific audience, since the awards presented today at the Lonja de los Mercaderes are intended to promote and enhance the development of scientific knowledge, research, technological and cultural innovation, medicine and entrepreneurship; promoting the relationship between science, business and university.
Although he highlighted that "there are many goals to be achieved", the King has recognized the "important myths" that have been achieved in Spain. Among them, the launch of the first Spanish space rocket, the Miura 1, the result of the work of the Elche company PLD Space.
In addition to aeronautics, Felipe de Borbón has given as an example of innovation how Spanish scientific production of renewable energies has doubled in four years or the first large green hydrogen corridor, which he has pointed out is "the safest path to a future habitable and dignified." Precisely this Tuesday, the European Commission has included the hydrogen corridor project that will circulate between the Iberian Peninsula and France among its priority infrastructures.
Thus, Felipe VI has defended that "Spain has the opportunity to champion science and technological development with a European seal" and has stressed the importance of strengthening the bridge "between academia and industry." Likewise, he has recommended continuing to promote scientific notions in adolescence, such as the STEM alliance, which he has cited, because "we cannot waste even an iota of talent."
He presented the Foundation's recognition to the winners, accompanied on stage by the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, and the mayor María José Catalá, as well as by the president of the Foundation, Vicente Boluda and by the executive president of the same, Javier Quesada. And he addressed them to point out that they are not only excellent, "but also exemplary in a complex time that needs new and solid references."
The winners have been, in the Basic Research modality, Antonio Echavarren Pablos, professor of Organic Chemistry at the Autonomous University of Madrid, research professor at the CSIC and Group Leader at the Institut Català d'Investigació Química (ICIQ), who has been awarded for his contributions to organic chemistry, especially focused on catalysis, which have made it possible to increase the efficiency of chemical reactions to produce medicines and other new materials.
In the Economics category, the winner is Olympia Bover Hidiroglu, PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics and associate researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies Research Fellow of the CEPR and fellow of the European Economic Association (EEA), who works as director of the Department of Structural Analysis and Microeconomic Studies, for her work in the field of applied microeconomics, where she has carried out important empirical studies on labor and housing markets and on household behavior.
In Medical Research, the award has been awarded to Guillermina López-Bendito, doctor in Neurosciences, research professor and director of the Department of Developmental Neurobiology of the Alicante Institute of Neurosciences, for her study of the processes that underlie the formation of connections neurons, where it shows that they are essential for normal brain function. The long-term aspiration of her research is to repair faulty neuronal connections in patients with sensory defects such as blindness.
The King Jaume I Award for Environmental Protection has gone to Carlota Escutia Dotti, doctor in Marine Sciences and scientific researcher at the Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences (IACT)-Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), for her pioneering contributions to the understanding of changing environmental conditions in the Antarctic ice sheets, southern ocean and biota and their impact on the global climate system.
In the New Technologies category, the award went to Daniel Maspoch Comamala, a graduate in Chemical Sciences from the University of Girona (UdG) and a doctor in Materials Science from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, for his achievements in the administration of drugs for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy; the development of biodegradable microencapsulation technology, in addition to his dedication to training research personnel and attracting talent.
Finally, the Jaume I Award in the Entrepreneurship category went to Alfonso Jiménez Rodríguez-Vila, president of Cascajares, a company dedicated to the agri-food sector, with various lines of action, from animal husbandry to hospitality or the production of white label products.
