Santiago Grisolía, the scientist marquis who opened Valencia to the Nobel

• Science Santiago Grisolía dies at the age of 99

• Interview Santiago Grisolía: "Old age gives experience and teaches you to be patient at the end of life"

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

If this were true,

(Valencia, 1923) is that photograph that Vicent Bosch took of him back in 2013. Santiago Grisolía has always been known in Valencia as "Professor Grisolía", thus generically.

Because how else to define that man who, at the age of 90, before Bosch's camera, suddenly began to do gymnastics on the stairs of the headquarters of his beloved

.

That is, to be suspended in the air with the force of his arms.

Fireproof.

Professor.

Marquis.

Friend of King Juan Carlos.

Incontestable.

Indisputable.

Grisolía passed away this morning having achieved something practically unprecedented in Valencia.

Such is the respect that he generated around him, that he remained there, in his place, watching the governments of some and others pass by.

Even the maelstrom and political change -and at all levels- that the 2015 electoral event in the Valencian Community brought did not affect him.

It was like that totem that, despite its fragile appearance, symbolized respect for science beyond battles and partisan colors.

And there he remained president of the

until the end.

In fact, Grisolía's legacy is precisely a few awards, the Rei Jaume I, which he promoted and which he definitively helped to consolidate.

Who if not he could manage to gather in Valencia about twenty Nobel Prize winners.

It was his contacts that made it possible, since it must be remembered that Professor Grisolía's biography includes having worked under

at New York University.

Year after year they have been the visible head of the juries of the awards conceived to recognize the best science done in Spain.

Hence, deep down, Grisolía always viewed the Princess of Asturias Awards with a bit of healthy envy (he was recognized with the

), much more famous than the Valencians and with the occasional nod to the media spectacle.

But the Rei Jaume I Awards have also always had the support of the Royal House.

Not surprisingly, Grisolía has always recognized his friendship with

, who did not hesitate to leave another door in history open for the Valencian.

Because Grisolía made history when science entered heraldry.

His friend the King granted him the Marquisate Grisolía in 2014, an opportunity that the professor took advantage of to design a coat of arms with scientific motifs.

Grisolía, doing gymnastics at the headquarters of the Rei Jaume Foundation I. VICENT BOSCH

"As I am a peaceful man, I was not going to put weapons or lions," Grisolía justified himself bluntly in an interview in EL MUNDO.

He then proudly explained how he had thought of incorporating nothing more and nothing less than enzyme crystals and the acetyl glutamic formula into the shield.

He himself winked at the scientific discoveries of his youth.

But if there was one thing that made him happy, it was the illusion that the title of nobility was going to give his wife, the researcher

: "Since she is American by birth, she is very happy to be a marchioness," he joked.

The two met at the Kansas City lab where they worked.

They no longer parted and their love lasted until the end.

To such an extent that Thompson's death in 2017 left Grisolía very affected.

Those who know him know that sadness consumed him ever since.

A hard blow that the professor had a hard time overcoming.

Even so, his image has been an icon of the Rei Jaume I Awards for three decades.

And, although in recent editions he preferred to remain silent at the award ceremony at the Lonja, there was never a lack of applause for his figure.

Just as his legacy will not be lacking in the following Rei Jaume I Awards.

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