University professor Isabel García-Jalón, promoter of the programs of study Nutrition in Spain, passed away.

Isabel García-Jalón Lama, professor at Schools of Medicine, Science and Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Navarra, died yesterday in Pamplona at the age of 78. Born in Logroño in 1943, García-Jalón graduated in Pharmacy in 1967 from the University of Madrid, where she also obtained the degree scroll as a technician in Bromatology in 1979. A few years earlier, in 1971, she received her PhD in Pharmacy from the University of Navarra.

In 1989 she moved from Madrid to Pamplona, where she stood out for her interfaculty work at campus biosanitary. She joined the department of Microbiology of the School of Medicine, dedicated most of her activity professor and research to Human Nutrition and Dietetics, while she was vice-dean of the School of Sciences between 1998 and 2004. She retired in 2013.

"She had a great professional vocation that united a passion for research and teaching, as well as a serene openness towards what challenge and novelty the adventure of life could bring her", emphasizes Professor Mercedes Muñoz Hornillos. "I remember her orderly and efficient, knowing how to combine the different tasks of each status. These qualities, enhanced, were the ones I later recognized when working with her, since October 1989, in the great task of promoting first the diploma program of Dietetics and Human Nutrition and, later, the Degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics".

manager of the first official Nutrition degree scroll in Spain.

From the beginning of her professional career, Isabel García-Jalón focused on Microbiology applied to food and food safety, which led her to contribute decisively to the existence and recognition of programs of study in Human Nutrition and Dietetics. The same year of her arrival at the University, the diploma program was implemented, an own degree scroll of which García-Jalón was the manager and which later, in 1998, became the first in Spain to be recognized as official.

To achieve this, the efforts of this pioneer focused on finding suitable academic staff for some of the subjects with scientific researcher level and professional experience, as well as establishing contact with European and American universities and centers of higher training with which to initiate supervised stays and validations of programs of study. "To carry out this project was the great task that over the years she pursued with zeal and enthusiasm, like a precious assignment, and she was able to complete it with a continuous effort that was hardly noticeable from the outside," recalls the professor.

Focused on students and teachers

Professor García-Jalón always had a special concern for taking care of the doctoral students and first professors who came out of the classrooms of diploma program and Degree of Nutrition. "She was happy - it was a source of great pride for her - to see them develop and practice a teaching for which they were especially qualified," says Mercedes Muñoz. "Also in the counseling, carried with constancy throughout the courses, she knew how to transmit to each person the effort for the integral training and the demand in the study of those who understand that society will ask them to be pioneers in their scientific and professional field".

As a researcher, she has published several books, book chapters and articles in scientific journals. thesis Throughout her degree program, she also presented numerous papers and communications at congresses, directed 16 doctoral and Master's Degree projects, and participated in 12 projects research. He was also a member of the Spanish Food Safety network (SICURA), president of the high school of Food Sciences of the University of Navarra (ICAUN), board member of the board Directive of the Spanish Society of Basic and Applied Nutrition (SENBA) and board member of the association Científica de Tecnólogos.