Argentine biologist Sandra Díaz won the Princess of Asturias Award for her studies on climate change

American Joanne Chory and Argentina Sandra Myrna Diaz, plant biology specialists and specialists in the impact of the climate crisis, received this Wednesday the Princess of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research 2019 .

The works developed separately by the two biologists have placed them at the forefront of new lines of research on the climate crisis and its effects, as well as on the defense of biodiversity.

The 57-year-old Argentine scientist Diaz, who graduated in biology from the National University of Cordoba, was presented as a "scientific reference in the field of ecology".

According to the jury, Joanne Chory's work on the molecular and genetic responses of plants to changes in the environment, especially light and temperature, helps to "understand and improve the adaptation of natural systems to global warming"

Researcher Pedro Miguel Echenique, president of the jury, highlighted his "pioneering contributions" to the knowledge of plant biology, "transcendent for the fight against climate change and the defense of biological diversity".

They also add that, in a complementary and independent way, Sandra Myrna Díaz's research can "quantify the importance of conserving functional biodiversity to ensure the benefits that ecosystems provide to humanity".

Joanne Chory and Sandra Myrna Díaz succeed Swedish biologist Svante Pääbo, a specialist in evolutionary genetics, who has focused on the study of the complete genome of Neanderthals and early prehistoric populations.

Prior to the announcement, the two women had accumulated numerous awards: Joanne Chory, among others, received the L'Oréal-Unesco Prize for Women in Science, Sandra Myrna Diaz, Konex Platinum in Biology and Ecology, awarded by the Argentinian homonymous foundation, and Bernardo Houssay, granted by the Argentine government.

What is the Princess of Asturias and the other winners?

The Princess of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research is awarded to "work of culture and improvement of research, discovery and / or invention in mathematics, astronomy and astrophysics, physics, chemistry , Life Sciences ", Medical Sciences, Earth and Space Sciences and Technological Sciences, as well as the disciplines corresponding to each of these areas and the techniques related to them. "

The recognition of scientific and technical research, in which forty-six candidates from twenty-three nationalities take part, is the seventh of eight prizes that the Princess of Asturias Foundation organizes every year to fail. The prize is endowed with a sculpture of Joan Miró – representative symbol of the award – a diploma, a badge and 50 000 euros.

They also won this award, including biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna; the chemists Avelino Corma, Mark E. Davis and Galen D. Stucky; physicists Peter Higgs and François Englert and the European Organization for Nuclear Research; neurologists Joseph Altman, Arturo Álvarez-Buylla and Giacomo Rizzolatti, or pioneers of the Internet, Lawrence Roberts, Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee.