The Full University Professor of Genetics of the Universitat de València Andrés Moya, has been awarded with the 2015 México prize for Science and Technology, becoming the eighth Spanish scientist, end the second Valencian, who received this award by the Government of the Mexican republic proposed by the Consejo Consultivo de Ciencias of this country. The previous Spanish award winners: Margarita Salas, Ginés Morata, the Valencian Avelino Corma, Antonio García Bellido, Miguel Ángel Alario, Carlos López Otín and Carlos Martínez Alonso.
The Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología and the Consejo Consultivo de Ciencias of the Presidency of the Republic of Mexico valued the contributions of Andrés Moya to genetics, evolutionary biology and genomics, because he has made “important contributions at the global level to the fields of symbiosis, experimental evolution and viruses’ epidemiology and human microbiome”, according to the award’s resolution.
In allusion to the Full University Professor of the Universitat de València, the doctors Enrique Cabrero and Jorge Flores, president and vice-president of the Award Council assure that “he is probably the most relevant evolution biologist of his generation. In Europe and in many countries of Latin America he is known as one of the more important researchers and intellectuals of his area”.
This award is given annually since 1990 to a person of recognised professional prestige who contributed significantly to the universal scientific knowledge or to the technological progress, whose work is of a great national impact and that, at the same time, it formed a school or significant human resources. The award is of a Latin American nature, it is addressed to the Centre and South of America, the Caribbean islands, Spain and Portugal.
The professor Moya, who reveals “an enormous proud and responsibility” to achieve this important distinction, will pick up the 2015 Mexico award for Science and *Technology during the first trimester of 2016, by the president of the Republic of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto. During this stay will also be several conferences of the professor scheduled in research centres.
The Consejo de Premiación of this award is composed by the Consejo Nacional for Science and Technology and by the Consejo Consultivo de ciencias of the Presidency of the Republic of Mexico and by the heads of the Public Education and External relations secretariats; and also by the presidents, general directors and principals of the Colegio de México, the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (Cinvestav), the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias, the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). And in this edition, the physicist Arturo Menchaca headed the works of the jury responsible of the verdict.
The Full University Professor Andrés Moya is author of around five hundred publications composed by scientific articles, chapters and books about genetics, evolution and philosophy. His more significant scientific contributions were within the areas of genomics and bacteria and microbial communities metagenomics, as well as the area of experimental evolution of viruses. In addition, he did a great disseminations and reflection task about science and published several books about the evolutionary theory and the reach of the evolutionary thinking. Nowadays, he focus his research on the area of the symbiosis, particularly on the study of the human microbiome and other organisms under an evolutionary perspective and synthetic and systems biology.
The awarded with the 2015 Mexico Award works at the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology of the Universitat de València and at the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Valencian Community (FISABIO) OF THE Valencian Government, and he also directs the FISABIO Institutional Chair of the Universitat de València. He is member of the Epidemiology and Public Health CIBER, of the Carlos III Health Institute. He is also a member of several scientific societies and founder of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology, of the Spanish Society of Virology and of the Spanish Society of Evolutionary Biology, of which he is the current president.
On the other hand, Moya received other distinctions such as the Ciutat de Barcelona award for Scientific Research (1996); the Fellow award of the American Association for the Advance of Science (1998); the Premio Diario Médico (2006); the Diploma of the Valencian Government president for the Excellence in the Biomedical Research (2010); the Premio Nacional de Genética (2012) of Spain; and the Premio Lilly (2013) of Pre-clinical Biomedical Resarch.
More information:
http://www.ccc.gob.mx/es/premio-mexico.h
