Born in Ceuta in 1953, José Manuel García Verdugo leaves behind a solid scientific legacy, built over decades of research around neural adult mother cells. His intellectual trajectory, recognised by numerous national and international awards, is characterised by a rigorous research in the cell biology field of the nerve system, combining electronic microscope techniques with animal and human models to unravel the formation mechanisms of new neurons in an adult brain.

Graduate in Biology Sciences through the Universidad de La Laguna and doctor through the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where he initiated his teaching career before incorporating in the Universitat de València, institution to which he was full university professor from 2001, over his career he made numerous stays in the Rockefeller University of New York and in the University of California.

With close to 400 articles in publications of high impact index –Science, Nature, PNAS, Cell, Neuron, among others–, his work has been cited in more than 60.000 occasions, which situated him among the most influent researchers of Spain and Europe in his speciality.

He was coordinator of numerous national and international projects He was corresponding academic of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences and, among other recognitions, he received the Ramón y Cajal Award of the Sociedad Española de Neurología.

Far from his scientific legacy, José Manuel García Verdugo is considered a generous master in training many researchers, to who he transmitted his conciliatory vision of neuroscience, rigorous and humanist.

With his death, the Universitat de València and the international scientific community loose an exceptional researcher whose work will continue, without doubt, transcending in the knowledge of the human brain.