The recognition of the emeritus professor of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the UV, this past Thursday June 30 at the headquarters of the RANF, rewards a long scientific and research career, with more than 430 publications essentially in the fields of Parasitology, Tropical Medicine and Public Health, but also in Ecology, Molecular Biology, Genetics and Evolution. His speech was about “Complexity and difficulties of the ‘One Health’ approach in vector-borne zoonotic diseases: Multidisciplinary analysis in Fascioliasis”. The reply speech was given by the secretary general of the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy, Antonio R. Martínez Fernández.

Specialist in Microbiology and Parasitology, Mas-Coma has focused his activities and studies above all on the field of Helminthology and parasitic diseases of humans and animals, among which his studies on zoonotic parasitic diseases and those of indirect transmission stand out. by insect or mollusc vectors, essentially neglected tropical diseases in developing countries. Recently, he has been included in the 0.2% of the most influential scientists in the world in the fields of Parasitology and Mycology (1^st choice), Tropical Medicine (2^nd choice) and Biomedical Research (3^rd choice), and in the 0.5% of the most influential scientists in the set of all disciplines (according to Ioannidis et al., 2019, PLoS Biology 17, 8, e3000384).

His long career has earned numerous awards, medals and distinctions, including the title of doctor honoris causa in recognition of his contributions in the field of international cooperation in health in developing countries. His contributions to fascioliasis and Chagas disease are well known. Specifically, in human fascioliasis his multidisciplinary contributions on a global scale have completely changed the perception of this disease. His contributions have reached such a level of impact that the WHO made the decision, for the first time, to add a disease to the list of important diseases of humanity, based solely on the contributions of a single person.

He has held other positions of international relevance such as president of the European Federation of Parasitologists (EFP) and member of the board of directors of the World Federation of Parasitologists (WFP).

Full act of the session (Youtube): https://ir.uv.es/d4yxB0G