Francisco Sánchez Madrid receives the Santiago Ramón Cajal National Prize in the area of Biology
The Spanish National Prizes for Research, created in 1982, are the most important awards in Spain in the area of scientific research.
At the 2020 ceremony, the King and Queen presented the National Prizes for Research to ten outstanding scientists of the year who "have made discoveries that help us better understand the world in which we live, and have opened the doors to applications that will improve the lives not only of the citizens of Spain, but also of the world."
The Minister for Science and Innovation highlighted the importance of these prizes in a year during which, "science and innovation have provided us with effective vaccinations to contain the pandemic in surprisingly short period of time."
Francisco Sánchez Madrid received the Santiago Ramón y Cajal National Prize in the area of Biology. Dr Sánchez Madrid leads the research group at the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), is Professor of Immunology at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid (AUM), Spain, and Chief of the Immunology Service at La Princesa University Hospital, Spain.
The jury awarded him this prize, which he received from the King, in November 2020 for his contributions to biomedical investigation in the area of inter-cellular communication, adhesion, migration and activation of leukocytes, and for the impact that this has had on the study of chronic inflammatory diseases. The award was earned not only for these achievements, but also for the international repercussion of his scientific career, in addition to the relevance of his work in teaching, training and tutoring young Spanish scientists.
The juries highlighted the extraordinary quality of all candidates. In order to select the winner, the juries evaluated the merit of each candidacy on a competitive basis and applied the principles of publicity, transparency, equality and non-discrimination
The Spanish National Prizes for Research, created in 1982, are the most important awards in Spain in the area of scientific research. Their purpose is to acknowledge the merit of researchers and investigators of Spanish nationality who carry out outstanding work in internationally relevant scientific fields, who also make exceptional contributions to the advance of science, transfer of technology and progress of humankind. These awards are worth a total 300,000 euros (30,000 for each prize).
The current edition received a total 100 candidates, of whom 22 were women and 78 were men. The various juries, composed of leading personalities from the different scientific areas of knowledge with an equal number of women and men, awarded the National Prizes for Research in ten categories. This is the first edition in which all ten categories of the prize have been awarded at the same time, showing the government's commitment to scientific excellence. To date, only five categories received awards each year.
The juries highlighted the extraordinary quality of all candidates. In order to select the winner, the juries evaluated the merit of each candidacy on a competitive basis and applied the principles of publicity, transparency, equality and non-discrimination.
