The microbiologist

César Nombela

, who chaired the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and was rector of the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) between 2013 and 2017, has died at the age of 76 last morning.

"With great pain we inform you that our husband and father, César Nombela Cano, owner of this account, has passed away," his family wrote on the social network Twitter.

"Today, Friday the 14th, we will be at the La Paz mortuary starting at 1 in the afternoon. Rest in peace, Dad," the tweet concludes.

Throughout his life, this researcher specializing in pathogenic microorganisms,

combined his intense academic work with the management of national and international scientific organizations

.

César Nombela Cano

was born in Carriches (Toledo) on November 6, 1946

.

Graduated in Pharmacy and Chemical Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, in 1972, he obtained a doctorate in science, specializing in Microbiology, at the University of Salamanca.

After completing his studies,

he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at New York University, and with Nobel Prize winner Severo Ochoa

, as well as at the Roche Institute for Molecular Biology, in New Jersey.

Upon his return to Spain in 1975, he joined, by opposition, the Institute of Biochemical Microbiology of the Higher Center for Scientific Research (CSIC) of the University of Salamanca.

Later he was associate professor of Microbiology at the universities of Santiago de Compostela and Madrid and it was at the Galician university that

in 1981 he obtained the Chair of Microbiology

.

Pioneer

A year later, he moved to the Complutense University to occupy the first chair of the aforementioned discipline in the Spanish university, specifically in the Faculty of Pharmacy, which he directed for 16 years.

At that university

, Nombela was the founder and director of the DNA Sequencing Center and he is responsible for the creation in 2001 of the first Extraordinary Chair in Genomics and Proteomics at the Spanish university

.

President of the Spanish Society of Microbiology

, he was also president of the National Council of Pharmaceutical Specialties and later of the European Federation of Microbiology Societies (FEMS).

Since 1994 and by testamentary appointment, Nombela was president of the Carmen y Severo Ochoa Foundation, and

was in charge for four years, 1996-2000, of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC)

.

Between 2008 and 2012, he was a member of the Spanish Bioethics Committee and

between 2013 and 2017 he was rector of the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP)

.

Since 2018 he has been honorary rector of that academic institution and director of the UIMP-MSD Extraordinary Chair in Health, Growth and Sustainability.

Throughout his prolific career, he was a member and held positions in important scientific associations and foundations, such as the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee or the Advisory Committee on Ethics in Scientific and Technological Research, in Spain.

Research

César Nombela was a member of the Royal National Pharmacy, the European Academy and the European Academy of Microbiology

.

He wrote several books and more than a hundred research papers, supervised more than twenty doctoral theses and published numerous popular and debate articles on bioethics, and university and scientific policy.

For his research work, he won

awards such as the CEOE for Sciences in 1995, the medals of honor from the universities of Lleida and Castilla-La Mancha and Menéndez Pelayo International, and the great crosses of Civil Merit and the Order of Alfonso X the Wise

.

Since 2015 he was the Favorite Son of Carriches, his hometown.

From the social network Twitter, organizations such as the UIMP, the CSIC or the Lilly Foundation, among others, and numerous colleagues such as the microbiologist Ignacio López-Goñi or the researcher Lluís Montoliu, have expressed their sadness at the death of the Spanish academic and professor.

All the messages and condolences from the scientific community coincide in highlighting not only Nombela's professional quality, but also his personal quality.

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