Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

5 P rince of A sturias A wards 1981-2014. S peeches Speech XIV It is for me a moving and happy experience to be back once again in the Principality of Asturias and the city of Oviedo —a welcoming setting for the most splendid adventures of creation and intelligence— to present the Awards that bear my name. The emotion we experience during the present ceremony springs from the most intimate recess of the loftiest human sentiment, for those who have received our Awards have replaced discord with harmony, despair with hope, darkness with science, despondency with enthusiasm. Other have led us with their imagination and art to the wonderful world of beauty, or dazzled us with their prowess in the field of sports. Of all of them it may be always said, as in that moving line of verse, that their heart has not beaten in vain. I deeply thank the Juries that have chosen the Laureates for the demanding efforts with which they have carried out their delicate task, and the sensitivity invested in capturing the spirit and goals of our Awards. At this hour of gratitude, I wish to mention once again all of those who contribute decisively to the aggrandizement of the Foundation: its Trustees and the authorities of the Principality, in particular its President and the Mayor of this city. I am convinced that we may continue to rely on their help to confront the new challenges that our institutions shall have to face in coming years. My thanks also go out to the media, who are so often the vehicle of encouragement for the highest achievements of our society. Their generous and efficient dedication helps us to spread the message of our Awards. Aurelio Menéndez, Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, is a fit heir to the tradition of the University of Oviedo, where, during the transition between the present century and the last, a group of illustrious professors advocated and achieved a renovation of the academic world and an extremely fruitful presence in Spanish society, for they dreamt for Spain a University that should be guided by merit, innovation and openness. The work of Professor Menéndez as a master of Commercial Law has been extraordinary; without it, and his permanent defence of human rights, it would not be possible to explain the progress and renovation obtained in the field. Circumstance also has it that he was an efficient coordinator and guide of my university studies. In thanking him publicly for his advice and for his generous dedication to perfecting my education, I wish to remember with particular fondness and gratitude, now that I am in the final stretch of my studies, all my teachers and tutors. They have inspired me with the love for knowledge and beauty, the goodness of tolerance, justice and the creative spirit of freedom. They also taught me that the advancement of learning is what matters most; that is to say, the progress of culture, the trace that learning leaves upon the spirit through continued study and training. From his deep conviction that developing countries must face, often unaided, their own problems, Doctor Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, was able, with the barest means and together with a devoted and enthusiastic team of co-workers, to develop a synthetic vaccine that is revolutionizing the struggle against malaria. Proof of the magnitude and importance of his discovery is to be found in the most recent data published by the World Health Organization, according to which malaria affects between 200 and 400 million people, including three million children, most of them under five years of age, who die “Those who have received our Awards have replaced discord with harmony, despair with hope, darkness with science, despondency with enthusiasm.” Watch video