Young Academy of Spain

On June 17, the General Board of the Young Academy of Spain, in an extraordinary meeting, chose 7 new full academics. An independent international committee made up of highly prestigious research personnel who cover different areas of knowledge, formed the selection committee and evaluated 142 applications submitted to this call. In addition to academic merits, the committee considered other factors in their decision such as the diversity and multidisciplinarity of their work areas.

ICFO Prof. F. Pelayo García de Arquer, leader of the CO₂ Mitigation Accelerated by Photons research group, was one of those chosen as a new member to the Academy this year, along with José Jaime Baldoví Jachán, Elena del Corro García, Rosa María Fernández García, Irene Lebrusán Murillo, Ana Ortega Molina and Carlos Tornero Dacasa. The profiles of the academics cover different areas of knowledge including archaeology, sociology, biology, study of medical applications, electrocatalysis, theoretical chemistry or phylogenomics.

Prof. García de Arquer was the recipient of the National Young Research Award ‘Felisa Martin Bravo’ (2023), the BBVA Foundation Leonardo Grant for Researchers in Physics (2022), an ERC Staring Grant (2022) and the RSEF-Fundación BBVA award for young researchers (2021). He has an outstanding publication record and has been included in the Clarivate Analytics  Highly Cited Researchers list in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.  The other academics that accompany him in this intake are also remarkable for their achievements and awards. Together they are the authors of more than 400 articles and have developed 11 patents.

The objectives of the Young Academy of Spain, which was founded in 2019 include:

1. Promote science as a professional option among youth by making exceptional young people from any country, and in particular from Spain, visible as role models.
2. Promote scientific training through the promotion of knowledge, research and innovation as drivers of economic development, and support exchange between young researchers from different institutions, both national and international.
3. Serve as a forum and platform for young researchers in this country so that they have the opportunity to collaborate and contribute to shaping policies for the promotion of knowledge in Spain.
4. Allow young Spanish researchers working abroad to be part of the Academy in order to serve as a link between these researchers and our country.

One of the characteristics that distinguishes the Young Academy of Spain is that membership is limited to 5 years. This peculiarity allows the youth of the 50 members of the corporation to be preserved, with 10 new Academicians joining every year (7 this year) who replace those whose membership ends in that year. This year the first replacement has occurred.

The Young Academy of Spain stands out for its multidisciplinarity, including professionals from fields as diverse as: computer science, engineering, archaeology, cultural anthropology, paleontology, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, biology, chemistry, psychology, physics, politics and European culture. , tourism, art history, dance, neuroscience, ecology, environment, mathematics, artificial intelligence, sports science, linguistics, philology, food technology or philosophy.

ICFOnians congratulate Pelayo and the other new academics for being included in this prestigious academy.