The Prince of Asturias Foundation
Ricardo Miledi
One of the ten most cited neurobiologists of all time, Ricardo Miledi was born in Mexico City in 1927. His career in science began in 1955 when, shortly before graduating in Medicine from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Spanish acronym, UNAM), he joined one of the most active research groups in his country, at the National Institute of Cardiology. He was Professor of Biophysics at the University of London and currently holds the position of Extraordinary Researcher at the Institute of Neurobiology in Queretaro (Mexico) and Distinguished Professor at the University of California at Irvine.
Many of Professor Miledi’s studies and breakthroughs in neurobiology, especially those related to the mechanisms of synaptic and neuromuscular transmission, are considered seminal throughout the world. His research in this field has proved basic to an understanding of how information is transmitted from the brain, and how this organ is affected by drugs and toxic substances. Forty years of research have resulted in over 450 publications, devoted in the main to the primary functions of the nervous system: the transmission of information between cells.
Holder of an honorary doctorate from the University of the Basque Country, he is an honorary member of the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico, member of The Royal Society of London and, in 1986, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Enrique Moreno
Enrique Moreno (Badajoz, 1939) holds a PhD in Medicine from the Complutense University of Madrid, where he is Professor of Surgical Pathology. Considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on surgery and transplants and an innovator in present-day surgical techniques, he is also Head of General Surgery and the Abdominal Transplant Service at Madrid’s Hospital 12 de Octubre and Head of Surgery at the Clínica La Luz.
Dr Moreno is one of the pioneers in liver transplants and the surgery of complex gastrointestinal, pancreatic and biliary diseases. His reputation as a surgeon and researcher is recognized worldwide and he is one of the leading educationalists in the field. He has built up around his person an outstanding international school in his speciality, where 400 specialists from around the world have been trained. His contributions to the treatment of portal hypertension, malignant tumours of the bile duct, and carcinoma and metastases of the liver are of major importance. He has developed new surgical procedures, such as mesenteric-caval shunt with the internal jugular vein and treatment of cancer of the cardia via extended esophagogastrectomy. He has worked intensively to raise and improve organ donation rates in Spain and has carried out research on transplant-improving techniques.
He is a member of both the Royal Academy of Medicine and the Society of Medical Surgeons of Spain, and is an honorary member of surgeons’ associations in many countries (such as the USA, France, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Panama, etc.), as well as belonging to many other institutions. He has been awarded the Gold Medal by the World Congress of the International College of Surgeons, the Semmelweis Medal by the University of Budapest and was voted Doctor of the Year in 1985 and Doctor of the Decade, among other honours. Holder of honorary doctorates from the Universities of Palermo and Malaga, he is Honorary Professor of different European and American universities.
