Mariàngela Vilallonga, director of the Chair of Literary Heritage Maria Àngels Anglada-Carles Fages de Climent of the University of Girona, vice-president of the Institute of Catalan Studies and full academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), received the Narcís Monturiol 2018 Medal awarded by the Government of Catalonia in recognition of scientific and technological merit during a ceremony that took place on February 19 in Barcelona. The event was headed by the president of the Catalan Government, Quim Torra, and was attended by the Catalan minister for Enterprise and Knowledge, Àngels Chacón.
Vilallonga delivered a speech of appreciation on behalf of all the winners. The academician reviewed the diversity of fields of research of the winners, as well as their different places of origin, to coincide in the creation and promotion of a knowledge model that has crystallized in Catalonia. And, to guarantee its future and prosperity, she influenced the need that the Administration strongly supports training and research. “Universal and unlimited access to knowledge, yes, but of quality, and here the university plays an essential role. Betting on science with quality universities and research centres and academies is to prepare a better future for all. That we expect from those who govern”, she said.
Without circumventing the political situation, Vilallonga assured that “the need to know isn’t only a natural impulse of the human being for his progress, but, in the case of the Catalans, it is a necessity essential for survival”.
