Manuel Ballester Boix Prince of Asturias Award for Technical & Scientific Research 1982

Manuel Ballester Boix (Barcelona, Spain, 1919-2005) graduated in Chemical Science from the University of Barcelona (1944) and earned his PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid (1948). The following year, he went to work at the University of Harvard as a research fellow between 1949 and 1951 and, some years later, took up the position of visiting professor at the Aerospace Research Laboratories (Dayton, Ohio, 1961-1962).

On his return to Spain he joined the team of researchers at the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - CSIC) where he held the positions of head of the Physical Organic Chemistry Section (1952-1971), director of the Institute of Applied Organic Chemistry (1971-1985) and director of research sponsored by the Office of Aerospace Research of the US government (1958-1973) and by the Spanish National Fund for Scientific and Technical Research (1972-1984). His scientific work focused on organic chemistry, especially on the kinetics and mechanism of organic condensation, on the synthesis and reactions of chlorinated aromatic compounds, and on the study of free radicals, substances of great chemical passivity and extraordinary thermal stability. The discovery of the inert free radicals was one of his most important contributions to the development of Organic Chemistry. His scientific work was reflected in numerous scientific publications of international scope. He worked as a lecturer and speaker at universities, polytechnics and multinational companies in Spain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the USA, France, Poland, the UK and Sweden.

He was also a member of the Spanish Committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (1969) and member of the scientific committees of international symposia on Organic Radicals held in Ann Arbor (Michigan, USA, 1966), Sirmione (Italy, 1974), Aix-en-Provence (France, 1978) and Obermayerhofen (Austria, 1992). He was respectively president and vice-president of the Third and Fourth “International Symposium on Polyhalogenated Compounds” (Barcelona, 1973, Birmingham, 1975) and chairman of the scientific committee of the Osborne Foundation for the Defence of Nature (1973-1979). In 1969, he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Madrid and, in 1980, a permanent member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona.