Josefina Castellví, pioneer of Antarctic analysis, dies at 90 | Science | EUROtoday

The biologist and oceanographer Josefina Castellví, director of the primary Spanish base in Antarctica, died final Monday in Barcelona on the age of 90, sources near the scientist have confirmed. Graduated in Biology in 1957, Castellví (Barcelona, ​​1935) started her skilled profession working on the Institute of Marine Sciences in 1960, then often known as the Fisheries Research Institute, and was its director between 1994 and 1995. A specialist in marine bacteriology, her ardour for the research of micro organism in excessive environments led her to grow to be within the white continent, the place she arrived for the primary time in 1967.

At a time when girls had been barely current in laboratories, Castellví participated within the group of Spanish analysis in Antarctica, in 1984, and directed the Spanish Antarctic Base on Livingston Island between 1989 and 1997. The Castellví Peak, named in her honor, is situated there.

During his keep in Antarctica, he labored on the primary Spanish ship to settle there, Las Palmas, after which on the oceanographic ship with polar capability, Hespérides. In whole, he carried out almost thirty oceanographic campaigns and greater than 5 expeditions to Antarctica. She was additionally supervisor of the National Research Program in Antarctica, accountable for the coordination of worldwide scientific initiatives carried out in that territory and delegate of the Higher Center for Scientific Research in Catalonia in 1984.

In 1994 she was appointed director of the Institute of Marine Sciences. In her lengthy profession she obtained quite a few distinctions, such because the Mérula award for Woman Manager of the Year (1994), the Gold Medal for Scientific Merit from the Barcelona City Council (1996), the Narcís Monturiol Medal for Scientific and Technological Merit from the Generalitat of Catalonia (1996), the Creu de Sant Jordi from the Generalitat (2003), the Environment Prize from the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (2006) or the Català de l’Any Prize from El Periódico (2013).

Professionally retired since 2000, Castellví continued for a few years linked to the dissemination and protection of the setting and the Antarctic continent. Coinciding with the twenty fifth anniversary of the creation of the Spanish Antarctic Base, Castellví was the protagonist of the documentary The recollections of ice, by Albert Solé, which allowed the researcher to set foot on the white continent once more 25 years later and see it for the final time.