José María Valpuesta
Investigator, Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia, Madrid
Professor at Imperial College London and Chair in Molecular and Cellular Biophysics at the MRC-Laboratory of Medical Sciences
He carried out his PhD at the University of the Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain) and his postdoctoral studies at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB-MRC; Cambridge, UK).He returned to Spain where he introduced the technique of cryoelectron microscopy at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, which he has directed for six years (2007-2013). He is currently head of its Macromolecular Structure Department.
Most of his work is related to the structural and functional characterization of different molecular chaperones, using different microscopies as main tools. He is author of three books (in Spanish) about science dissemination: “In search of the secret of life.
A brief history of molecular biology”, “The fishes at the end of the world” and “Proteins. The amazing bricks of life”. He has been President of the Spanish Microscopy Society (2005-2009) and of the European Microscopy Society (2020-2024). He is currently President of the Spanish Biophysical Society (2022-).