We bid farewell to Margarita Salas

The Spanish biochemist Margarita Salas has died this Thursday in Madrid. A tireless worker, she started out in the United States working with the Nobel Prize winner Severo Ochoa and on returning to Spain her research into molecular genetics revolutionized this discipline. This scientist from Asturias was the first female member of two Royal Academies, the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences and the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language.

Throughout her career she received important awards although as she herself stated by quoting Severo Ochoa on receiving the Fundación MAPFRE Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009: There’s no personal merit in it, because throughout my life I’ve done what I feel passionate about: research 

A dedicated scientist, she strove to help women achieve the place they deserved in the field of science, she fought for the rights of scientists and to help science obtain more resources, and devoted considerable time to training young scientists.

We wanted to offer this well-earned tribute to a courageous and brilliant scientist who inspired so many people to become scientists and who today follow in her footsteps. She will remain an inspiration to us all.