Rafael Ayala, an internal student at the Department of Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Seville and a final-year student of the Biochemistry Degree, has received one of the 65 scholarships from la Caixa to pursue postgraduate studies at European universities. Rafael has been collaborating with the IBVF Biointeractomics group since February 2012. During this time, his efforts have focused mainly on the study of the structure and function of metalloproteins. This young student has been the only candidate from an Andalusian university —along with another student from the University of Cadiz— to receive a scholarship from among the 1,026 accepted applications.

“la Caixa” scholarships are awarded on a very competitive basis, and cover all areas of knowledge. The selection process involved university professors with extensive international experience and, specifically, the selection panels took into account three factors to evaluate the candidates: a) The excellence of the proposal, b) The impact of the project, and c) The importance of the effect that the scholarship may have on the candidate’s scientific career.

Rafael will use this scholarship to do a Master’s in Structural Molecular Biology at Imperial College London. This is a Master of Research, in which, in addition to the usual theoretical classes, he will develop two research projects. It is worth noting that Imperial College appears at the top of the most influential rankings of the best universities in the world 2013-2014: Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THEWUR), Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), prepared by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS).