Pedro Miguel Etxenike wins Passion for Science prize

Pedro Miguel Etxenike has been awarded the Passion for Science prize by the #LabMeCrazy! international science film festival, which is organised every year by the University of Navarre Science Museum. The award ceremony took place yesterday during the festival gala held at the University of Navarre Museum Theatre.

Pedro Miguel Etxenike (Isaba, 1950) was one of the first students to enrol on the Bachelor's Degree Course in Physical Sciences offered by the University of Navarre on its Donostia / San Sebastian campus, where he graduated in 1972. He has PhDs from the University of Cambridge and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Right now, he is Professor Emeritus of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of the Basque Country (EHU).

“#LabMeCrazy! is honoured to recognize the track record of this great scientist; a researcher who has promoted fundamental science as a cultural and social driving force. He has also done extraordinary work in communicating science, and is the best example of passing on a passion for science to the new generations," said Bienvenido León, director of the #LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival.

Featuring among the multiple recognitions and prizes awarded during his professional career are the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research, the Max Planck Award for Physics, the “Xabier María de Munibe” Euskadi award for Research, the “Dupont” Award for Science, the Prince of Viana Award for Culture, the CSIC Tree of Science Award, the Iberdrola Award for Science and Technology and the National Blas Cabrera Award for Physics, Materials and Earth Sciences. He has received the Gold Medal of the City of Donostia / San Sebastian, the Gold Medal of the Royal Spanish Society of Physics, the Gold Medal of Gipuzkoa and in 2016 the Gold Medal of Navarre. He was made Universal Basque of the Year in 1998. He is an Honorary Citizen of the town of Isaba in Navarre.

With the Passion for Sciences prize Pedro Miguel Etxenike joins the cohort of scientists who have had brilliant track records and who have been honoured in previous editions of this festival: Francis Mojica, Margarita del Val, Luis Enjuanes, Vicente Larraga and Mariano Esteban, Clara Grima, Juan Luis Arsuaga and Sara García Alonso.

#LabMeCrazy!

The #LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival is an international science film festival organised by the University of Navarre Science Museum, and which has the collaboration of the Caja Navarra Foundation, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) / Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities, the Government of Navarre, the SACYR Foundation, Laboral Kutxa, the Lilly Foundation and Sanitas.