The King and Queen of Spain present the award National Prize of research in Medicine to Miguel Ángel Martínez-González

Professor Miguel Ángel Martínez-González, Full Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of the University of Navarra and Full Professor attachment of Nutrition at Harvard University, has received in Alicante from the hands of the King and Queen of Spain the award Gregorio Marañón National Award of research in the area of Medicine. According to the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Professor Martínez-González has been awarded for his unique contributions on the relevance of nutrition in preventive medicine and, in particular, of the Mediterranean per diem expenses , as well as on behavioral intervention to change lifestyles.

"It is the first time that this award is given to a researcher in Public Health, and precisely with the pandemic it has become clear that it is a vital specialization program for the whole of society", said Full Professor Martínez-González. "For this reason, it is also a recognition to the entire specialization program of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, an endorsement for so many professionals who work hard to protect the population.

The professor acknowledged that, although he receives it at degree scroll individually, the award is extensible to all the professionals with whom he has worked: "It is a distinction that honors so many teams and excellent professionals with whom I have had the good fortune to collaborate and who have contributed to the fact that the per diem expenses Mediterranean and healthy lifestyles now have indisputable scientific evidence all over the world". He also had a special mention for the members of the department of the University of Navarra who have trained with him and who "carry out great work in public health". "In this sense, I believe that the Ministry of Science and Innovation has been able to recognize the leadership of Navarra and the research that we carry out".

At the ceremony held at the headquarters of Casa Mediterráneo (Alicante), the king highlighted the value chain provided by scientific activity: "Recognitions such as these should continue to inspire your work, making it better every day, demonstrating the great potential researcher of our country and that your submission to science and the support you receive serve the common good".

"The research is indispensable from a social point of view and from a country point of view, because a far-sighted transformation cannot be addressed without relying on science and the knowledge", he said.

Diana Morant, Minister of Science and Innovation, thanked the winners for their contribution to society: "Today we applaud and value the excellent work of 20 people who have poured their talent, effort, passion and patience into providing us with the maximum wealth that an advanced society longs for: knowledge. Congratulations and thank you for helping to build hope".

More than 30 years dedicated to the research epidemiological

Dr. Miguel Ángel Martínez-González has been devoted to epidemiological research for three decades, especially in the field of nutrition, lifestyles and cardiometabolic diseases, where he has more than 1,000 indexed publications. Full Professor of Public Health at the University of Navarra since 2005, and Full Professor attachment of Nutrition at Harvard University since 2016, he directs the group of research CIBEROBN of high school de Salud Carlos III and has designed and directed, as researcher principal, trials and cohorts such as the SUN and PREDIMED projects. These programs of study have yielded scientific evidence with worldwide impact to the per diem expenses Mediterranean and olive oil as referents of a healthy food patron saint .

His research was endorsed by the European Union (committee of research European , ERC) by granting him as researcher principal project PREDIMED-plus, which started in Navarra in 2013 and in which 22 Spanish centers collaborate. Also, since 2013, he has been researcher principal, together with Frank Hu (Harvard University), of several projects funded by the US government to evaluate metabolomics in the context of interventions with per diem expenses Mediterranean.

In 1995 he launched the department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Navarra and has been mentor of a group of professors and full professors of Epidemiology and Public Health in Spain and the U.S. In addition, as a popularizer, his publications with the publishing house Planeta stand out, such as "Salud a Ciencia Cierta" (2018) and "¿Qué come?" (2020). In January 2023 he published "Salmones, hormones and screens".

Full Professor Miguel Ángel Martínez-González (second row, third from the left) in the family photo of the winners, together with the King and Queen of Spain and the Minister of Science and Innovation (second row, third from left).

Third National award research in Medicine of the University of Navarra

After the act of submission, Martínez-González becomes the third professor of the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra to be awarded the award Gregorio Marañón National research . 

Dr. Jesús Prieto, Full Professor emeritus of Medicine, former director of the department of Internal Medicine of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and of the area of Hepatology and Gene Therapy of the Cima University of Navarra, received it in 2014. For his part, Dr. Jesús San Miguel, director of Translational Medicine of the Cima University of Navarra, director physician of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and also Full Professor of the School, was likewise distinguished in 2021 for his research in the treatment of multiple myeloma.