Mariano Collantes, researcher of the Evolutionary Genetics group of the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology of the Universitat de València has been awarded with the IX Joan Oró scientific research dissemination prize, given by the Catalan Association for Scientific Communication (ACCC). The Valencian researcher’s team –composed by the journalist Alba Forés and the editor Rubén Soler– has ben awarded for the video named “El pulgón. El parásito que te cambiará la vida” (The aphid. The parasit that will change your life). The award consists of 1 000 euros.
“The Joan Oró ward seemed to me a great opportunity to share the research work we are doing in our group. This kind of initiatives promoted by the ACCC help to bring science closer to people and, most of all, they stimulate participation of scientists in dissemination projects”, said Mariano Collantes, who highlighted that this acknowledgment is a “great incentive to continue working in scientific dissemination”.
The award ceremony was on Thursday 5 of November at the Museu Blau de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, coinciding with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the ACCC.
The researcher of the University highlighted that the call of this year demanded the participation of a journalist. “In my team there is Alba Forés, and making a short film is not easy, so we turned to Ruben Soler, who acted as a producer and editor”, says Collantes. “The collaboration has been especially productive for all members of the team because we all learned about the relevance and need of a group work to obtain a better result when producing science communication contents”, pointed out the researcher of the Cavanilles Institute.
The jury decided to award a second prize –without economic endowment– to the team composed by the journalist Anna Arjona, the designer Albert Conejos and Mireia Félez –researcher of the Research Group on Sport and Physical Activity in the Universitat de Vic– for the audio-visual “Pon en forma tu cerebro” (Get your brain fit).
The Joan Oró ward for scientific research dissemination of the ACCC has the objective of stimulating young researchers and journalists to disseminate scientific developments and the capacity to communicate the content and value of research, in addition to facilitate the presence of the dissemination in media. In order to apply for the award, participants should form a team with, at least, a researcher and a journalist, both young, and to present an unprecedented work within the written or multimedia modalities.
This edition of the Joan Oró award has been possible thanks to the support of the Associació Catalana d’Entitats de Recerca (ACER), the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI), the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) and the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ).
Joan Oró
Joan Oró Florensa (Lleida, 1923-Carcelona, 2004), internationally recognised biochemist for his studies on the origin of life, was a consultant of the United States Space Agency, the NASA, professor at the University of Houston and promoter and president of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL). The Catalan researcher and professor was awarded in 1983 with the Alexander Ivanovich Oparin medal of the ISSOL, in addition to the gold medal of the Catalan Government in recognition for his work as a science disseminator and his work on the origin of life.
Link to the awarded video: https://vimeo.com/144845771
Terms and conditions of the IX Joan Oró scientific research dissemination award:
http://www.accc.cat/index/ixpremijoanoro?sz=1366,768,1366,667
Last update: 10 de november de 2015 08:40.
News release
