José Miguel Soriano, Professor in Nutrition and Bromatology at the Universitat de València, has been named general manager of the Lluís Alcanyís Foundation of this university. Soriano replaces José Manuel Almerich, who has been in charge for the foundation for 19 years.
Professor José Miguel Soriano has been manager of the Lluís Alcanyís Foundation’s University Clinic of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Physiotherapy until now. Moreover, he is co-manager of the Joint Research Unit in Endocrinology, Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics at the La Fe Health Research Institute-Universitat de València. Soriano heads the Food & Health Lab and the Gastrolab – Fernando Sapiña of the Institute of Material Science at the same university. In addition to teaching at faculties such as the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Universitat de València, he has a renowned career as disseminator both with articles in media and with the publication of different books.
Soriano is PhD in Pharmacy with an Extraordinary Award (2003), graduated in Human Nutrition and Dietetics, and in Bioinformatics, and he is member of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and of the Pharmacy Academy in the Valencian Community. He has made stays in research centres in France, Italy, Egypt, Norway, Argentina, Peru, and El Salvador, and he is author or editor of more than 200 scientific publications and 10 books.
The Lluís Alcanyís Foundation
The Lluís Alcanyís Foundation of the Universitat de València is a public health foundation that manages the Dental Clinic; the Podiatric Clinic; the Optometric Clinic; the CUNAFF Clinic of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Physiotherapy; the Logopedic Clinic; and the Psychology Clinic, and that develops educational and healthcare assistance activities related to the training process of the students of the Universitat de València, as well as research related to their area of activity. This way, the Universitat’s clinics, managed by the foundation, have participated in the training of more than four thousand degree and postgraduate students in the health science branch from the beginning of their activity in 2008.
The name of the foundation acknowledges Lluís Alcanyís, who was a renowned Valencian doctor and poet, who was born in Xàtiva around 1440. Coming from a family of Jewish conversos, he held the first chair of medicine at the newly created University of Valencia. There is not much left of his literary activity, but his medical writing has been preserved. It was titled 'Regiment preservatiu e curatiu de la pestilencia, compost per mestre Luis Alcanys mestre en medecina' (‘Preservative and curative regimen against Pestilence, composed by master Luis Alcanyís, master in medicine’), and it was a series of instructions to prevent and heal Plague. The Inquisition, established by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain some years before, accused him and his wife of practising Judaism. Both of them died burned at the stake in 1506.
