Photo: From left on the right Víctor Garrigós, Cecilia Picazo and Paula Ruiz.

On March 25, the members of the jury met to decide the winners of the different categories of the XVII “Ciutat d’Algemesí” Scientific-Technical Award for young researchers, to which 16 works had been submitted. Three members of our institute have been distinguished: Paula Ruiz in the category of scientists under 26 years of age and Cecilia Picazo and Víctor Garrigós have received an honorable mention.

The “Ciutat d’Algemesí” award for those under 26 years of age, worth 1,500 euros, went to Paula Ruíz Rodríguez, from the I2SysBio Bacterial Pathogenomics group, for her study "Experimental genomic evaluation of the epidemiological risk caused by emerging mutations in the envelope proteins of the virus that causes COVID19."

The work presented by José J. Baldoví (ICMOL, UV) received the prize for those under 36 years of age worth 5,000 euros. This is a work on theoretical and computational chemistry titled "Chemical design of smart materials for quantum technologies." The prize for the best research by young people from the Ribera, endowed with 1,500 euros, has gone to Gerard Duart Celdrán (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UV) for his contribution to the study of the mechanisms for cell death and its applications in fundamental biology with his work "Control of programmed cell death through interactions between transmembrane segments, a new therapeutic target."

In addition, the jury has awarded three second prizes with a prize of 500 euros to María Cabrero, Juan Francisco Blàndez and Francisco Garnés. Finally, honorable mentions were awarded to the works presented by Carles Teruel, Belén Llobregat, Beatriz Lozano, and to the members of the Industrial Yeast Biotechnology group of the I2SysBio Cecilia Picazo and Victor Garrigós.

The jury was made up of the mayor of Algemesí, the Councilor for Culture, the Councilor for Youth and the scientists José Pío Beltrán, research professor at the CSIC; José Vicente Castell, professor of Biochemistry at the UV; Miguel Ángel Miranda, professor of Chemistry at the UPV; José Viña Ribes, professor of Physiology at the UV; Health Botella Grau, professor of Microbiology at the UPV and Jaume Segura, professor of Computer Science at the UV.