Yesterday at its headquarters and in an official ceremony, the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain (RAC) presented the 2023 Ramón y Cajal Medal to physicist Pablo Jarillo Herrero for his distinguished research career. Winner (Valencia, 1976) is a physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whose most famous scientific contribution was the discovery of a new family of superconductors based on the superposition of two sheets of graphene rotated relative to each other at an angle, baptized “magic”.
This award has been given every two years since 2017, in recognition of outstanding work by a researcher under 50 years of age. In previous editions, the Ramón y Cajal Medal was awarded to neuroscientist Oscar Marín Parra, physicist and optics expert Susana Marcos, and mathematician David Pérez García.
In front of the 100 people who turned out to watch the actor, John Markade, head of the RAC’s Department of Physics and Chemistry, praised Jarillo’s character, saying, “His discovery surprised everyone and showed” that spin is an additional resource for modifying the properties of materials in a controlled way.
For his part, Pablo Jarillo began his speech by recalling the character of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who read his book “Tips and Rules for Scientific Research” upon his arrival in the United States: “I want to emphasize here the great support that Cajal gives to research in basic sciences and strong support for young researchers, which is What I think still needs to be strengthened further in Spain. So I am humbly happy to receive this award in honor of Ramon y Cajal.
The session was chaired by the President of the RAC, mathematician Jesús María Sanz Serna, who presented the medal and certificate of accreditation to Professor Jarillo.
At the same ceremony, José María Foster was appointed Honorary Academician of the RAC for his assistance and contribution to the Academy.
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