José López-Carrascosa awarded ‘Miguel Catalán’ prize 2019

The Autonomous Community of Madrid has awarded the 2019 ‘Julian Marías’ and ‘Miguel Catalán’ Research Prizes

Among the awardees is the SBE member and former SBE President (2003-2007) Prof. José López-Carrascosa, from the Department of Macromolecular Structures, at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología – CNB, CSIC, Madrid (Spain), who wins the ‘Miguel Catalán’ prize 2019 in recognition for his scientific career.

Prof. José López-Carrascosa has dedicated his scientific career to the structural study of large biological macromolecules and macromolecular complexes, including the development of new technologies for this important type of research. He has focussed mainly on different microscopy techniques, incorporating new experimental approaches and analytical methods for image processing. These developments have contributed to the establishment of Electron Microscopy as an important complementary technique to X-ray diffraction and nuclear magnetic resonance in the field of Structural Biology.

José López-Carrascosa is research professor at the CNB, CSIC (Madrid), where he has been Director (1990-92) and founder the Department of Macromolecular Structures, which he also directed during more than 20 years. At present he is the leader of the Structure of Complex Macromolecules research line at the CNB.

He has been board member of numerous national and international bodies; among others, president of the European Microscopy Society (EMS, 2000-2004), member of the Executive Committees of the International Federation of Societies for Microscopy (IFSM, 2010-2018) and the European Biophysical Societies Association (EBSA, 2007-2017), chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the ERA-Instruments Action (2008-2011), member of the Steering Group on Research Infrastructure for Biological and Medical Sciences of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI, 2005-2009), member of the Science Advisory Committee of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, 2003-2008) and president of the Spanish Societies of Cell Biology (SEBC, 1993-1996), Biophysics (SBE, 2003-2007) and Microscopy (SME, 2014-2017).