• The jury for this 33rd edition of the awards included 22 Nobel Laureates who participated by videoconference.

Valencia, June 8, 2021.

This morning took place the solemn ceremony of the Rei Jaume I Awards, held, as every year, in the Lonja building in Valencia. The jury of this 33rd edition of the awards has had 22 Nobel Laureates who have participated by videoconference.

The ceremony was attended by Fernando García and Ramón Castresana, president and director of Fundación Iberdrola España, respectively, and Ibán Molina, institutional delegate of the company in the Valencian Community.

This year’s winners were Licia Verde in Basic Research, Antonio Cabrales in Economics, Eduard Batlle in Medical Research, Fernando Valladares Ros in Environmental Protection, Nuria Oliver in New Technologies and Benito Jiménez in Entrepreneurship, who received the medal accrediting them as winners of their respective awards.

Fernando Valladares was this year’s winner in the “Environmental Protection 2020” category. Fernando is a Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Associate Professor at the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC).

The research carried out by the candidate on the impacts of human activity on terrestrial ecosystems began thirty years ago, coinciding with the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. From the work in functional ecology came the explicit approach to phenotypic plasticity, that is, the ability of organisms to modify their phenotype depending on the environment, a key feature in the response of organisms to global change in general and climate change in particular.

The Rei Jaume I Awards are granted to people who stand out in their field of work and who have developed most of their professional activity in Spain. They are recognized as the most prestigious awards for the activity carried out in Spain and are one of the best paid in the country. The winners in each category are committed to donating part of the prize money to research and entrepreneurship in Spain.

Iberdrola has participated in this event since its Foundation has been collaborating for years with this institution as a member of the Jury and promoter of the Environmental Protection Award, one of the six award-winning categories.

Iberdrola, committed to environmental protection

Iberdrola, through its Foundation in Spain, is firmly committed to environmental protection and the fight against climate change. Thus, the commitment to biodiversity extends to important actions that are governed by the lines of action set out in the Master Plan, such as supporting programs for the conservation of endangered species and the restoration of protected habitats.