The Prince of Asturias Foundation
Manuel Losada Villasante
Manuel Losada Villasante (Seville, 1929) graduated in Pharmacy from the Complutense University of Madrid, where he was later to earn his PhD. He carried out research at the University of Münster (1954), the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen (1956) and the University of California at Berkeley (1958-1961). He also lectured in Chemical Physiology at the University of Madrid and was a supernumerary researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (Spanish acronym, CSIC). In 1967, he was awarded the Chair in Chemical Physiology at the University of Seville’s Faculty of Sciences, subsequently known as the Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which he held until his retirement in 2005. In 1968, he founded the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis, which he directed until 1986.
His research interests lie mainly in photosynthesis, bioenergetics, intermediary metabolism and its regulation, the biophotoelectrolysis of water, the assimilation of nitrate and other primordial bioelements, phosphate energization, the bioconversion of solar energy and the biotechnology of microalgae. He has supervised more than fifty PhD theses and has published over two hundred scientific papers and reviews on these subjects, as well as several books, including Potentiometry and Bioenergetics, Photobiochemistry and Elements and Molecules of Life.
Advisor to CSIC, he is also a member of a number of national and international societies and scientific academies. Holder of the CSIC National Science Award and the National Biological Research Award, the National Council of Pharmacists Prize, the Maimonides Prize and the Jaime I Research Prize, he gained the No. 3 Medal of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences and became an honorary member in 1980. Honorary academician of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Navarre and is an honorary member of the Spanish Society of Plant Physiology and of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He was also named a “favourite son” of Carmona and Andalusia.
National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica
Founded in 1989, the National Biodiversity Institute (Spanish acronym, INBio) is a non-profit scientific institution that works with a social orientation for the public good. Its mission is to promote greater awareness of the value of biodiversity, thereby achieving its conservation and improving the quality of human life.
INBio generates knowledge about biodiversity, communicating and promoting its use by different means in accordance with the characteristics and demands of national and international users.
Its activities aim to assist the spiritual, social and economic development of Costa Rican society in equilibrium with the environment.
This mission is accomplished through its core process, which is the result of the integration of the five institutional programmes and its General Administration Board. This process involves three steps:
- Generation and capture of information
- Organisation and administration of information
- Transfer of this knowledge to society
INBio performs these processes with a humanist vision that is innovative, systematic, participatory and multidisciplinary, establishing strategic alliances with various national and international sectors.
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