Fitxa persona

José Adolfo de Azcárraga

has a physics degree (1963) by the  Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Ph. D., also in pysics, by Barcelona University (1968),  obtained with the help of a prize by the Fundación Juan March. He has realized numerous stays abroad, in special half a dozen of years in Cambridge and Oxford universities, as well as shorter stays in other european and american universities and research centres. Since1978 he is theoretical physics professor in Valencia university (at present emeritus) and a member of IFIC; before he belonged to Barcelona and Salamanca universities.

Alongside his teaching academic duties, he has developed an intense scientifc career, having been Principal Researcher of numeorus research competitive projects, both national and european. He has also had various academic responsabilities. In particular, he was a member of the Experts Commission created by the Spanish Ministry of Education that issued (12-feb-2013) a Report to improve the Spanish University System (Propuestas para la Reforma y mejora de la calidad y eficiencia del Sistema Universitario Español), that can be found in the general articles section of http://www.j.a.de.azcarraga.es or in https://www.uv.es/~azcarrag/ (see articles 36 and 37). He has been president (2013-2021) of the Spanish Royal Pysics Society  (Real Sociedad Española de Física, RSEF). He is a member of the Real Colegio Libre de Eméritos.

Prof. Azcárraga has frequently expressed his concern fot the quality of the teahing in Spain, and has written extensively about this subject. His last paper on this problem can be found in the general articles secion of http://www.j.a.de.azcarraga.es or https://www.uv.es/~azcarrag/ with the number 77b, The new Spanish educational legislation: why public education will not improve, Revista Española de Pedagogía 281 (enero-abril 2022), págs. 111-129. 

He has also been concerned about closing the gap between science and society. Alongside his career, he has delivered countless talks for the general public, on sience in general, on physics or on the theory of evolution and its implications. In 1905 he received the Special Prize Año Mundial de la Física granted by the RSEF, the  Spanish Royal Mathematics Society and la Fundación Española de Ciencia y Tecnología for his book  En torno a Albert Einstein, su ciencia y su tiempo (published by Valencia University, 2nd ed., 2006).

He has also artistic interests: with the sponsorship of the Valencia Town Hall, he helped to creatae the Sala de Arte Adolfo de Azcárraga of the Museo de la Ciudad, mostly devoted to Valencian paintings of the twentieth century. More details can be found  in http://www.j.a.de.azcarraga.es .