Seville, November 3, 2016. Juan Ramón Sánchez Valencia, member of the Institute of Materials Science of Seville (ICMS) —attached to the Isla de la Cartuja Scientific Research Center— yesterday received the Award for Excellence in Research in Innovation of the IV edition of the Manuel Losada Villasante Awards.

The award ceremony took place in the Antonio Machado room of the Cajasol Foundation in Seville and, among other authorities such as the Mayor of the City of Seville and the Rector of the University of Seville, was attended by the President of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Susana Díaz.

The awards honour Manuel Losada Villasante, founder of the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (IBVF) and the first Andalusian scientist to receive the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research in 1995.

Sánchez Valencia is a young physicist, expert in Nanotechnology, who applies this discipline to sensors, microelectronics and solar cells, as well as semiconductor devices, sensors, filters and X-ray sources. On this occasion, his project entitled ‘Development of new advanced functional materials with applications in photonics, sensors, electronics and photovoltaics’ has been awarded the prize of 6,000 euros.

In 2014, Sánchez Valencia also received the Royal Seville Academy of Sciences Award for Young Researchers, for his contributions to the development of photonic sensors and portable X-ray sources based on carbon nanotubes, as well as for his work related to the manufacture of carbon nanotubes with atomic precision.

The other two winners in this edition of the Manuel Losada Villasante Awards were Pablo Huertas Sánchez (CABIMER, University of Seville), with the Award for Excellence in Scientific Research and a project on early detection of cancer, and Manuel Pérez Ruiz (University of Seville), with the Award for Excellence in Research in the Agri-Food area and his research on the use of drones for the efficient application of herbicides.