The Esplugues-Mota family donates to the University scientific and laboratory instruments of great historical value
- Press Office
- February 24th, 2023
The descendants of Juan Esplugues, Professor of Pharmacology between 1971 and 1993, and Amalia Mota (1929-2022), CSIC researcher in Documentation and Biomedical Informatics, have donated to the University of Valencia scientific instruments and laboratory material of great interest to know the history of medicine. The donation ceremony was held on Monday, February 27th at the Cerveró Palace, headquarters of the López Piñero Institute.
The event was chaired by the rector of the University of Valencia, Mavi Mestre, and included speeches by professors Carlos Esplugues, Josep Lluís Barona, Josep Simón and Juan V. Esplugues, as well as the director of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Francisco Javier Chorro, and the rector. The curator of the museum, Josep Simón, explained the exhibits at the entrance of the auditorium.
The donation comes from the personal collections of two prominent members of the Faculty of Medicine of Valencia, who practiced during the second half of the twentieth century. Juan Esplugues Requena (1927-2011) was professor of pharmacology at the University of Valencia between 1971 and 1993. In 1987 he created the Juan Esplugues Foundation with the aim of promoting the training of young postgraduates in pharmacological research. Since its creation, the foundation has awarded some forty grants, contributing to the training of many professors and researchers. Amalia Mota Bru (1929-2022) was a CSIC researcher at the Center for Biomedical Documentation and Informatics, in close collaboration with Mª Luz Terrada Ferrandis, a pioneering center in the development of information and documentation techniques in medicine that facilitated the access of healthcare professionals and scientists to international information.
After Amalia Mota's death, the Esplugues-Mota family decided to donate the scientific and medical part of their library to the university library, and later donated a dozen scientific instruments and laboratory materials they owned to the López Piñero Interuniversity Institute. These include microscopes, photometers, pill dispensers, sets of weights, scales, pH meters, colorimeters, tensiometers, and bottles of substances used in pharmacology, which contribute to expand the arsenal of instruments contained in the Museum of the History of Medicine and Science of the University of Valencia. In the future, the materials from the donation will be integrated into the exhibition on the history of medicine in Valencia, which is permanently housed in the Faculty of Medicine.
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