María Jesús Renedo, professor at School of Pharmacy, is retiring after 44 years of service to the University of Navarra, leaving the trail of her productive professional life. She studied pharmacy at the Complutense University. She began her first work at the CSIC, to later travel to Pamplona and join what was her passion, the pharmaceutical industry.

- When and how did you arrive at the University?
I had had some contact with D. Félix Álvarez de la Vega, who started the School of Pharmacy. As soon as I arrived in Pamplona he located me and tried with great interest to get me to start working at the university.
At first, in 1966, I accepted his proposal to combine my work in a business of antibiotics with the realization of the doctoral thesis , which D. Félix himself directed me. Shortly thereafter, I declined his offer to teach some subject at School. From then on, this offer of his became an annual one until "my surrender" in 1968, when I became position of the subject of "Special Galenic Pharmacy", currently "Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics". Despite my passion for the industry, I am glad I opted for the university. It has been 44 years working with a great teacher and a great team. It has brought me many satisfactions and enriched me personally.

- And when she finished the thesis , she was appointed vice-dean of students of the School
That's right. At that time, Mr. Jesús Larralde was Dean of the School of Pharmacy and Mr. Félix, director of the department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology. The Vice-Deanship of Students was a task that excited me and I started to combine this assignment with the teaching and the research, until I left it to do a research stay in Leuven.

- And from there to Office of the Executive Council, as Vice President of students
I was Vice President of Students from 1986 to 1996. The Vice Rectorate covered diverse areas such as promotion and admission of students, Office of Academic Affairs, Cultural Activities Office, sports and social...
During that time I had a team of great category, thanks to which various initiatives and activities were promoted. In particular, UAS, Christmas carol contest, University Life, Sports Day...
Also in those years I had the opportunity to meet many relevant people in different fields: successful writers, influential journalists, elite athletes, politicians... An enjoyable and very interesting task.

- And after those ten years, I returned to School
. Actually, I never left it. I was combining my work of Vice President of students with that of deputy director of department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology; I continued directing some thesis , teaching some class... When I left Office of the Executive Council, I was director of department for 9 years. I remember that a very interesting line of research was launched in pharmacy: "New pharmaceutical forms: drug vectors", which we now know as "Nanotechnologies and controlled drug release".
In these years the department has grown a lot. At the beginning we were only Mr. Felix and some very young professors. Nowadays, we are more than 60 professionals among professors, researchers, PIFs, technicians,... in addition to the students of spanish pharmacy residency program of Industrial and Galenic Pharmacy, those of Master's Degree in design Galenic and Biopharmacy, etc.

- I'm sure you also had the opportunity to meet St. Josemaría, the founder of the university and its first Chancellor. How do you remember those meetings?
Indeed, I was able to see him at some academic event. And I also had the opportunity to meet him personally at a meeting of the board of Governing Body of the University, to which I belonged as a representative of the senior colleges. In that meeting, the Chancellor informed us of the approval by the Holy See of the Institute of Theology as School. He commented on the relevance of this change that would serve, according to what he told us, to give much glory to God through the theological training of a great issue of people. I was impressed by how close and affectionate he was. I have an indelible and unique memory of him.

- Has the university changed a lot in this time?
It has changed as has society, since it is mission statement of the university to serve society by anticipating its needs.

- What are you going to do now after retirement?
I will continue at contact with the School, teaching some classes at Master's Degree in design Galenic and Biopharmacy. I also want to publish some work of research pending.