The professor emeritus of University of Seville and one of the most important geneticists in Spain, Enrique Cerda Olmedodied at the age of 83 from a heart condition from which he had suffered for a long time. His remains were found in funeral home … of the SE-30where they will remain until this Sunday afternoon. He lived in the Heliópolis neighborhood and leaves two children.
Founder in 1969 of the Department of Genetics at the University of Sevillethere he became the first teacher of this disciplineof which he has become a reference thanks to his research and dissemination work. Not in vain, since From 1972 to 2012, he led research groups in the United States.in which he trained several generations of biologists and geneticists, consolidating Seville as a reference center in microbial genetics.
Cerdá, born in the Granada town of Guadix, studied Biological sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid and obtained a doctorate in Agricultural Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and then made the jump to the United States, where he obtained a doctorate in biology at the University Stanford Universityin which he was able to work with Philip C. Hanawalt and Nobel Prize winner Max Delbrück and be a pioneer in Spain in work on genetics.
His scientific work focuses on understand the genetic mechanisms of bacteria and fungi – particularly from organisms such as Phycomyces blakesleeanus – to understand sensory responses, induction of mutations and secondary metabolism, with biotechnological applications.
Cerdá Olmedo has published more than a hundred monographs and scientific articles, while obtaining several patents and directing numerous doctoral theses. He was also a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)THE Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain and the Royal Academy of Sciences of Sevillebeing one of the founders of the latter. He has also been recognized with major awards for his work as King James I Research Prize (1995), the National Genetics Prize (2011) or the Andalusia Medal (1996).
José López Barneo, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Seville, regrets the loss of a figure like Enrique Cerdá, a “pioneer of Spanish geneticswho was characterized by being a controversial man, in the sense of promoting scientific debate, and very cultured”, his debates were therefore “very enriching”.
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