Mercedes Muñoz Hornillos, promoter of programs of study of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, passed away.

Mercedes Muñoz Hornillos, professor at School of Pharmacy and Nutrition, died yesterday in Granada, her hometown, at the age of 86. She graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1965. He specialized in Food Sciences at the Università Degli Studi di Roma (1970), after receiving a scholarship from the Italian government. Years later, in 1993, he received his PhD in Pharmacy from the University.

She began her activity professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, where she was professor teaching assistant of Chair from Chemistry from 1965 to 1977. In 1989 she moved to Pamplona to start the diploma program of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, germ of the current Degree in Nutrition, together with Professor Isabel García Jalón. She was director of programs of study of Dietetics from 1989 to 1997, and continued to teach teaching until her retirement in August 2009.

In the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition, many professors remember that Professor Muñoz always had a special concern for attending to the doctoral students and first professors who came out of the classrooms of the diploma program and the Degree in Nutrition. She was happy to see them develop and practice a teaching for which they were especially qualified. Itziar Zazpe, along with other teachers, was a student of Mercedes Muñoz. "In her classes I discovered her passion for Nutrition programs of study . She was a pioneering woman and tireless fighter until she achieved the official status of these programs of study. Since I joined the University in 1995 and until her retirement, I was fortunate to have a real teacher, close, very concerned about all people, especially her disciples and students".

In addition to being a teacher and promoter of programs of study of Nutrition, those who trained with her emphasize her dedication to others. "I remember her as a very close person and very attentive to us. Among many other values she taught us, I would highlight two: the importance of a well-done work and, especially, the attention and care for people," says Roncesvalles Garayoa. He applied it especially in counseling, which he carried with constancy throughout the courses, and in which he 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. In this sense, Marisol García-Unciti emphasizes: "She was an endearing companion. She guided us professionally and personally throughout our professional life".

Professor Muñoz is co-author of important books, together with Professors García Jalón, Aranceta or Guijarro, such as 'Applied Nutrition and Diet Therapy', or 'White Book of Nutrition for the Elderly', book chapters and journal articles in the field of Human Nutrition on dietetics and health in the stages of life (from childhood to the institutionalized elderly) and in the various pathologies. He was also interested in the study of culinary traditions or the evolution of eating habits of the population of Pamplona.