The Director of the Centro de Investigaciones Científicas Isla de la Cartuja (cicCartuja), Miguel Ángel de la Rosa Acosta, has been appointed vice-president of the European Federation of Biochemical Societies (FEBS) for 2013, and will serve as its president for the following year. Founded in 1964, the FEBS is one of the most influential European institutions in the life sciences, bringing together nearly 40,000 members in 43 national biochemistry and molecular biology societies across the continent and several countries in neighbouring regions.

The mission of this body is to promote and support the different scientific initiatives that arise at European level in areas such as biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, biocomputing and biophysics, while encouraging training in these fields through grants for young people and advanced courses, and encouraging the exchange of scientific results through its journals and the Congress it organises every year.

In 2014, Miguel Ángel de la Rosa will take over the presidency of FEBS from Italian scientist Sergio Papa. De la Rosa is Professor at the University of Seville and has a long career in the field of plant biochemistry and structural biology. In early September 2012, he chaired the 22nd Congress of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) and the 37th Congress of the European Federation of Biochemical Societies (FEBS), which was held in Seville under the theme ‘From Simple Molecules to Systems Biology’ and was attended by some 2,500 people, including six Nobel laureates. He was also president of the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM) from 2008 to 2012.