The Extraordinary General Meeting of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), held on June 4, appointed as new honorary academicians elected seven personalities of recognized academic and social prestige, including three Nobel prizes that raise to 19 the number of scientists recognized by the Swedish Academy who are already an active part of the RAED. The majority of the new electors -five- are women, so that the Royal Academy fulfills a commitment of recognition towards the female researcher that should be common to our society.

Those appointed by the General Board are Frances Hamilton Arnold, Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2018; Ouided Bouchamaoui, Nobel Peace prize winner in 2015; Gérard Albert Moreau, Nobel prize in Physics in 2018; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, general director of the World Health Organization (WHO); Margarita Salas Falgueras, disciple of Severo Ochoa; María Vallet Regí, the most cited Spanish scientist, and Blanca Pons-Sorolla, the main researcher in the work of Joaquín Sorolla, her great-grandfather.

Scientist and chemical engineer, Hamilton Arnold received the Nobel prize in Chemistry for his research on methods of evolution aimed at creating useful biological systems, including enzymes, metabolic pathways, genetic regulation circuits and organisms. She is a professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the prestigious California Institute of Technology.

Ouided Bouchamaoui is a Tunisian entrepreneur who since 2011 is leader of the Confederation of Industry, Commerce and Handicrafts of Tunisia. As leader of the organization, she participated from 2013 in the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, which won the Nobel Peace prize. The French magazine “Jeune Afrique” has identified her as one of the 25 most important business women in Africa.

Gérard Albert Moreau, Nobel prize in Physics of 2018, is recognized as a pioneer in the field of electrical engineering. He received recognition from the Swedish Academy along with Arthur Ashkin and Donna Strickland for their “significant inventions in the field of laser physics”.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected general director of WHO for a five-year term during the World Health Assembly held in May 2017. After taking office, he identified five key priorities for the organization: universal health coverage, health emergencies, the health of women, children and adolescents, the effects of climate and environmental change on health and the transformation of WHO.

Margarita Salas Falgueras has been a doctor of Science since 1963. She was a student of Severo Ochoa, with whom she worked in the United States after doing so with Alberto Sols in Madrid and with the well-known scientist Eladio Viñuela. She is currently a lecturer in the Higher Council for Scientific Research of Spain and develops her work at the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center of the Autonomous University of Madrid.

María Vallet Regí is a researcher widely recognized and cited in biomedicine, particularly in the fields of regenerative biomaterials and drug delivery systems. Her publications are the most cited of a Spanish researcher and has been recognized with important international awards.

Blanca Pons-Sorolla is great-granddaughter of Joaquín Sorolla and is considered the world’s greatest specialist in his work, to which she has dedicated her life as a researcher and has worked for many years in the artist’s reasoned catalog. She has been assistant curator and documentalist of the main exhibitions of the painter. She is also the author of the artist’s most complete biography, “Joaquín Sorolla. Vida y obra” (Joaquín Sorolla. Life and work) (2001).