Manuel Losada Villasante and National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica Prince of Asturias Award for Technical & Scientific Research 1995

The Jury for the 1995 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, Ramón Capote del Villar, Enrique Chacón Oreja, Antonio Fernández-Rañada Menéndez de Luarca, Federico García Moliner, Amable Liñán Martínez, Hermengildo Mansilla Izquierdo, José Ramón Peláez Pruneda, and Lorenzo Pueyo Casaus, gathered in Oviedo under the presidency of Julio Rodríguez Villanueva and with José Antonio Martínez Alvarez acting as secretary, have unanimously agreed to grant the 1995 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research jointly to Professor Manuel Losada Villasante and to the National Institute of Biodiversity of Costa Rica.

Professor Losada of the University of Seville has carried out pioneering, essential research on he photosynthetic assimilation of nitrogen, fundamental key to the development of life.

The Institute of Biodiversity of Costa Rica is a unique institution in the world, created to carry out scientific studies into species and their diversity, as well as for the management, on a solid scientific basis, of protective areas for this diversity. This constitutes a magnificent example of the use of science for the good of humanity.

Both fields of research complement each other by taking a different scientific perspective of basic aspects of understanding and protecting life on this planet.

Oviedo, 12th May 1995