On November 25, the formal act of the “Awarding of Medals” to the new Academic Members of the Young Academy of Spain took place. Since the creation of the Academy in 2019, 30 outstanding researchers in fields that encompass the main branches of knowledge have joined it, among them Samuel Sánchez, group leader of the “Smart Nano-Bio-Devices” group at IBEC.
Among the new academics are 3 recipients of the Princess of Girona Award, 1 of the King James I Award, 13 recipients of the prestigious European Research Council grants (ERC-Starting Grant and Consolidator), 9 members of the Global Young Academy and several researchers from the Ramón y Cajal Program.
The ceremony was opened by Prof. Dr. Javier García Martínez, President of the Young Academy of Spain, one of its founding Number Academics. They then welcomed the Hon. Mr. Antonio L. Doadrio Villarejo, President of the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy and Hon. Mr. Jesús María Sanz Serna, President of the Institute of Spain and President of the Royal Academy of Applied, Physical and Natural Sciences, followed by the Academic Secretary of the corporation, Prof. Dr. Javier Martínez Moguerza, who summarised the activities that the Academy has carried out since its creation.
After the awarding of medals, Dr. Cristina Blanco Sío-López and Prof. Dr. Estrella Díaz Sánchez gave a speech on behalf of their colleagues about their vision of the contribution of the Young Academy to the advancement of science in Spain.
About Samuel Sánchez:
Samuel Sánchez Ordóñez, born in Terrassa in 1980, has a degree and a doctorate in chemistry from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He has carried out research visits at the University of Twente (Holland), the International Center for Young Scientists (Japan), the National Institute for Materials Science (Japan) and the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Dresden (Germany).
He has also been a researcher at the prestigious Max Planck Institute of intelligence systems, in Stuttgart (Germany), and since 2015 he has been part of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), where he develops his functions as an ICREA researcher leading his own research group, called “Smart nano-bio-devices“. Currently, he is also deputy director for Internationalisation at IBEC.
Amongst many distinctions, Samuel Sánchez has won the MIT Award for Innovators under 35 years old (2014), the Princess of Girona Foundation Award for Scientific Research (2015) and the National Research Prize for Young Talent (2016). In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) “Consolidator Grant“. With his i-NANOSWARMS project, Sánchez and his team will study the collective behaviour of self-propelling nanorobots and study their possible applications in the administration of drugs and image diagnosis.
Samuel hopes to be able to contribute, for the second year in a row, to the Academy with this international profile, his passion for science, for scientific communication and his determination to develop science of excellence. In addition, he has a great interest in helping young researchers in their scientific career.
