Month: December 2024

Professor Javier Quesada, on behalf of the Valencian Rei Jaume I Prizes Foundation, wishes to express his condolences and sadness at the death of Miguel Burdeos, collaborating trustee of the Rei Jaume I Prizes Foundation.

Miguel Burdeos was a wonderful person and very dear to the Foundation, always thinking about promoting science, research and entrepreneurship, as evidenced by the fact that he joined the Foundation in 2011 as President of SPB (Suavizantes y Plastificantes Bituminososos, S.L.).

His commitment to the promotion of knowledge and its dissemination led him to chair the Chemical and Environmental Association of the Chemical Sector of the Valencian Community (Quimacova), and he became one of the strong men of Valencian employers, being Vice-President of the Valencian Business Confederation (CEV), full member of the Chamber of Commerce, of the Regional Employers Cierval, and Patron Director of the Chair of Management and Business Culture of the Social Council of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He was also a member of the R+D+i Committee of the Spanish Employers’ Confederation CEOE.

Burdeos has always shown his interest in business and learning, as well as his desire to promote the Rei Jaume I Prizes, to the point of organising visits by Nobel Laureates to his company to stimulate his employees. Enthusiastic about chemistry and its use to improve life, he promoted Spanish science and research and supported many young entrepreneurs growing up in our country.

His mark, passed on to his daughters, who are also committed to recognising excellence, is an example and a source of inspiration to all those who knew him.

May he rest in peace.

The President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, chaired the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Rei Jaume I Prizes, which took place on 2nd December at the Palau de la Generalitat.

Dr Luis Valenciano Clavel, a member of the Foundation’s Advisory Council for more than fifteen years and advisor to the Jury of the Rei Jaume I Prizes, has died.

Dr. Valenciano, a medical expert in viral infections, promoted the introduction of the oral polio vaccine in Spain in the 1960s, which is why he was honoured by some of the last people affected by this infection at an event held at the Foundation’s headquarters in April 2017, during the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the human papillomavirus vaccine, in which the safety of vaccines was discussed.

In addition, Dr Valenciano was the first Director General of Public Health of the Ministry of Health, created by the first democratic government, and then Undersecretary of Health until the first government of Felipe González.

He returned to laboratory research, this time as Scientific Director of Wellcome Spain, where he contributed to the development of the first drug to treat AIDS, a virus he continued to study until his retirement in the search for a vaccine.

As a member of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, his integrative approach and profound knowledge brought an objective and up-to-date vision of immunological therapies and vaccine development, as well as his interest in science and improving the quality of life of patients.

May he rest in peace.

The HAC (High Advisory Council) of the Valencian Community held an extraordinary meeting due to the DANA disaster, on the initiative of the Commission for the Protection of the Environment.

After the presentations of four spokespersons, there was a general debate with the participation of all those present. The presentations were made by Jose Luis Rubio, under the title “How to prevent and mitigate the impact and catastrophic risks of DANA in Mediterranean environments”, followed by the intervention of José María Baldasano, who spoke about the geographical, meteorological and climatic causes of the flooding in the Community of Valencia. He was followed by Juan Bautista Marco, professor at the UPV, who presented his idea of “Science and technology in the defense against floods. The essential interdisciplinarity”. The winners of the Rei Jaume I Prizes ended with Alfonso Vegara, who spoke about the intelligence of the territory, and Ramón Tamames, who recalled “The experience of 1957: floods and southern solution. The importance of certain infrastructures in the long term”.

On the occasion of the awarding of the Nobel Prizes, every December 10, the Foundation held a first edition of the day dedicated to them and, specifically, a monograph on Ramón y Cajal was held on the occasion of this day.

Three experts in the field, such as José Manuel García Verdugo, Professor Emeritus of Cell Biology at the University of Valencia, Isabel Fariñas, Professor of Cell Biology at the UV and National Research Award in 2024, and María Pedraza, PhD in Neuroscience, spoke about the Spanish Nobel Prize.

Thus, García Verdugo proposed to imagine what would have happened if Cajal had known electron microscopy, presenting a series of drawings by the Nobel Prize winner himself, who always “drew what he saw, he did not invent anything”, who left us a series of extraordinary drawings of the human brain, which today electron microscopy has refuted with a technical precision that did not exist in Cajal’s time.

Fariñas spoke of Cajal’s passion and fascination for the brain, where “we have 86,000 million interconnected neurons, each of which receives about 10,000 synapses from other neurons. Pedraza defined Cajal as “the cartographer of the nervous system, the pioneer of modern science, who dared to hypothesize how the brain worked, and there was not a single false interpretation, given how scrupulous and meticulous he was in everything he did.

María Pedraza, Doctor of Neuroscience, spoke about “The Eye of Fañanás”. Ramón y Cajal’s wife, Silveria Fañanás, dedicated herself to photography, with new techniques that she also commercialized, in addition to helping her husband in the laboratory and being the mother of seven children. She is present in all Cajal’s work,” said Pedraza, “as a pioneer of microscopic photography,” and recognizes that her time in Valencia was considered ” the Spanish Athens, because of the landscapes, the beaches, the courtesy and the Valencian wit,” he said in clear reference to those years in which Cajal taught at the Faculty of Medicine in Valencia as professor of anatomy.

At the end of the speeches, the Foundation announced the publication of 12 interviews with the Nobel Laureates who participate each year as jurors of the Rei Jaume I Awards, which are now available on the Foundation’s YouTube page and will soon be available on the web. The 12 Nobel Laureates interviewed were: Frank, Feringa, Haroche, Ciechanover, Szostak, Klaus von Klitzing, Schekman, Sheldon Lee Glashow, MacMillan, Meldal, Roberts and Patapoutian. It was the latter’s video that was broadcast live during the meeting:

If you want to see the recording of the day:

On the occasion of the meeting of the Rei Jaume I Prize juries in June, the Foundation conducted in-depth interviews with several Nobel Laureates, where we learned about previously unpublished aspects of them and others, such as the reasons for their awards or how they see research in Spain. They also gave us advice for future generations that we are sure you will want to hear, especially since it comes from a Nobel Laureate. Take a look at the 12 interviews here:

In view of the tragic situation that is being experienced in the Valencian Community due to the DANA, the Valencian Foundation Rei Jaume I Prizes has decided, in agreement with the House of HM the King, to postpone the Ceremony of the Rei Jaume I Prizes 2024 that was to be held on November 22, until next spring, as well as the entire program of events planned.

The Foundation deeply regrets the difficult situation we are experiencing and wishes to convey its deepest condolences to all those affected, especially the families of the victims, as well as those who have lost their homes, businesses and belongings.