2016_09_29_CIE_corma

For Avelino Corma, award Príncipe de Asturias de la research Científica y Técnica 2014 -and recent award Spiers report 2016-, "researchers have the obligation to create science but also to transfer it to the industrial or productive sector". This was stated on the occasion of the First José María Albareda Lecture, which took place at the University.

The talks, promoted by the Chair Timac Agro-University of Navarra, have as goal to bring closer to campus, and in particular to students, leading scientists in the field of science and agrobiotechnology. This is the case of Corma, one of the most relevant Spanish researchers, with more than 900 articles in Nature or Science, among other journals, and more than 150 patents, several of them developed by important companies in the hydrocarbon field.

Precisely in his lecture, the promoter of the high school of Technology Chemistry of the Polytechnic University of Valencia explained to the students of the School of Sciences some of his most relevant findings in the field of catalysis. As he explained, "catalysts are nothing more than molecules or materials that accelerate chemical reactions. And given that 80% of chemical reactions involve catalysis, the margin for work and improvement is enormous, also if we try to optimize these catalysts so that there are no by-products in the reactions".

In particular, the work of Avelino Corma and his team has served to obtain more efficient catalysts in the world of hydrocarbons, but also in the manufacture of new materials that serve to transport antitumor drugs or for the treatment of biomass, among other applications.

"To innovate you can't follow the same path."

According to researcher, honorary doctor by 13 national and international universities, the way to find new ways to work "is not to follow the path that others have already taken, because then you only get to the same place but later. It is necessary to look for other ways.

On the status of science in Spain, Corma stressed that although he and his team did not have great means, they did share good ideas, "and this is much more important. The means can be obtained later, but there is no good science without good ideas and good heads to develop them".

 The José María Albareda Lectures are named after this scientist of Aragonese origin who established the instructions of soil sciences and Agrobiology in Spain. Albareda was also the first University Secretary of the committee Superior Institute for Scientific Research (CSIC), from 1939 to 1966. At the head of committee he was in charge of coordinating and promote the research, and of encouraging new scientific vocations in young people through the creation of research centers all over Spain. Albareda was also President of the University of Navarra between 1957 and 1963.