Exploracions pel planeta del menjar (‘Explorations on the planet of food’), by disseminator Pere Puigdomènech (Barcelona, 1948), is the winning work of the XXV «Estudi General» European Award for Scientific Dissemination, endowed with € 12,000 by the University of Valencia. The winning work has been known during the Premis Literaris Ciutat d’Alzira gala, this Friday, November 8, a cultural event attended by about 700 people. The rector of the University of Valencia, Mavi Mestre, handed the commemorative trophy to Pere Puigdomènech.
The winning work of this award, set up to stimulate the creation and dissemination of informative works that put knowledge at the disposal of the general public, examines how this basic need, food, determines an important part of people’s lives and how, at present, to feed themselves, human beings depend on the decisions that the species took on the origin of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. Thus, society has to face the challenges involved by feeding a population that can reach over 9,000 million humans halfway through this century, that is living in increasingly larger cities and has a sufficient, safe, healthy food requirement and that corresponds to its cultural norms.
“At the same time we have discovered that agriculture is an activity that contributes to the climate changes that we observe today, the effects of which can be important for the production of food. This situation involves both individual and collective decision making, which the book aims to contribute to inform about”, stresses Pere Puigdomènech, a graduate in Physics from the University of Barcelona and author of scientific and dissemination articles in international magazines and media, books and synthesis works, among others.
Pere Puigdomènech i Rosell is a doctor in Biological Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. After a stay at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, he joined the CSIC in 1981. He has directed the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona and the Center for Research in Agrigenomics (CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB) of Barcelona, the latter until 2013. He is a member of the Institute for Catalan Studies, the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona, the European Academy, EMBO and a foreign member of several European academies. He has also chaired the Catalan Society of Biology and the Ethics Committee of the CSIC. He has received the Narcís Monturiol Medal for the scientific and technological merit of the Government of Catalonia (1992), the Catalan Foundation for Research Award (2000), the COSCE Award for Scientific Dissemination (2013) and the Vicent Andrés i Estellés Award for Scientific narrative (2006).
The jury of the XXV European Award for Scientific Dissemination «General Study» was formed by María Dolores Real, Vice President of Innovation and Transfer and who presided over it; Carolina Moreno, director of the «Sense fronteres» collection of the University of Valencia; David González Jara, winner of the 24th edition of this award; José F. Pertusa, researcher of the Department of Cell Biology, Functional Biology and Amparo Ricos, researcher of the Department of Spanish Philology. The Award is convened by the University of Valencia and the City Council of Alzira, in collaboration with Edicions Bromera. It aims to stimulate the creation and dissemination of works that, with understandable language, make available to the general public, and the pre-university students in particular, the scientific and technological advances and also the dissemination of information, interesting aspects of the various branches of knowledge.
XXXI Premis Ciutat d’Alzira
The rest of the literary awards given at the XXXI Premis Literaris Ciutat d’Alzira gala are for the writer Vicent Usó, winner of the XXXI Premi de Novel·la Ciutat d’Alzira with No sabràs el teu nom; Juli Capilla, who won the XXI Premi d’Assaig Mancomunitat de la Ribera Alta with Ars libris. The XIV Premi de Poesia Ibn Jafadja has distinguished Joan Deusa for Camelot o la poesia social. As already made public, the winner of the XIV Premi de Teatre Ciutat d’Alzira Palanca i Roca has been Carles Alberola, for Perquè t’estime, que si no...; Rosa Maria Colom has received the XXIV Premi Fundació Bancaixa de Narrativa Juvenil for Coppelius; Francesc Gisbert, author of El campament d’Aniràs i no Tornaràs, has been awarded the XXIV Premi de Narrativa Infantil Vicent Silvestre and, finally, the IV Premi Internacional d’Àlbum Il·lustrat Enric Solbes Consorci Ribera i Valldigna has been for the illustrator Canizales, with Monstruo verde. The jury, moreover, has decided to nominate Blai Senabre and Anna Font for the work La cabra Serafina as finalists of this category.
Last Friday night gala was hosted by the Valencian humorist Eugeni Alemany, with the collaboration of Maria Juan, and was attended by the group of dolça players Les Raboses d’Alzira. Among the attendees are the counselor of Education, Vicent Marzà; the president of the Valencian Courts, Enric Morera; various political representatives of Valencian municipalities; members of the Valencian Language Academy and the Valencian Council of Culture, and representatives of the main unions and entities such as Escola Valenciana. This edition had about 200 originals that opted for an overall endowment of € 66,000.
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