Isabel García-Jalón: "I have always counted on capable people by my side".
The professor of the Schools of Sciences and Pharmacy gave her last class at the University on April 26th.
Isabel García-Jalón is a professor at Schools of Sciences and Pharmacy: manager of the subjects of Microbiology and Food Hygiene (Biology and Pharmacy degrees), Food Sanitation (diploma program of Human Nutrition and Dietetics) and Food Microbiology (Degree of Human Nutrition and Dietetics). On Friday, April 26th, professors of department, doctoral students and students wanted to accompany him in his last class. Professor García-Jalón then reviewed her long career at the University.
How did you come to the University?
I came to the University of Navarra at three different times. The first time as a student in the first year of degree program, it was called selective science, I was the last graduating class that had to go to Zaragoza to take the exams. It was the 1961/62 academic year. At that time I had not started the School of Pharmacy and I went to Madrid to study these programs of study. I returned in 1967 to take the thesis , defended it in October 1971 and returned to Madrid.
The last and final final return to Navarra took place in September 1989. That year the University started the programs of study course in Human Nutrition and Dietetics and I was asked to come and direct it. There was, naturally, a strong previous preparation, we visited several European and American universities with long experience in this degree program, which did not exist in Spain. Once started, there were many difficulties: the main one was the delay, 9 years, until the degree program achieved official recognition in Spain. A long history in which many obstacles had to be overcome, the teachers supported with impetus and, fortunately, we have a great demand for student body very valuable and determined to pave the way for this new profession. Today they are spread all over Spain, proud of having been pioneers.
After your varied career in different areas of the University, which one do you choose?
Without hesitation, the people: professors, students, staff administration and services, a network that makes it pleasant and efficient to work here on a daily basis. I could detail it in minute details, but this is not the place. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them.
Founder of the laboratory of Food and Water Microbiology, with you the programs of study of the diploma program of Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the University, you were also the first director of a major high school . Do you consider yourself an enterprising woman ahead of your time?
I find "ahead of the curve" too much. I don't think I'm a particularly entrepreneurial person, let alone ahead of my time. Maybe I identify more with being able to take risks when I see that project is worth it. In any case, it cannot be forgotten that I have always had capable people by my side.
How have the programs of study and the research in Nutrition and Dietetics and, in your specific area of food microbiology, evolved since you joined the center?
Nutrition and Dietetics in these years has experienced an enormous development throughout Spain, both in research, as in knowledge dissemination and I would say in social concern. In our University the area of nutrition is at the forefront.
As far as food microbiology is concerned, when I joined, in the department of Microbiology this area hardly existed. I had specialized in Madrid in that discipline and I was able to start developing it here, at this moment five people form the group. Food microbiology has different derivations, in food safety and food production. Our research is more directed to safety.
What anecdotes or milestones would you highlight from your time at the University?
Perhaps when the approval of the programs of study of Human Nutrition and Dietetics in our University was published in the BOE (Official State Gazette). We were the first in Spain, a great joy, it was Christmas vacations in 1998. I remember who called me and where I was.
What are your plans now, will you continue researching?
No, I am not going to continue researching, there are already prepared people, with drive, who are doing it very well. I am going to dedicate myself to my family, which is a big family with many tasks to cover. I think I am going to be busy