FACULTY OF ENGINEERINGAda Byron award

The award in the Senior category has gone to a Basque researcher who is an Ikerbasque Research Professor and Head of the Biomolecular Nanotechnology Laboratory at CIC biomaGUNE, a biomaterials research centre in Donostia / San Sebastián, where she also serves as Scientific Director. She has pioneered a line of research focused on transforming molecularly engineered proteins into technological platforms for biomedical, bioelectronic and sustainable advanced materials applications, combining fundamental science with innovation.

The award winner has founded Taldeki Biosolutions, a spin-off company focused on transforming protein-based technologies into innovative solutions for diagnosis and treatment. This project represents a key aspect of research: generating knowledge that can be translated into useful tools for tackling current challenges relating to health, sustainability and new technologies. Furthermore, she has been involved from the outset in the creation and promotion of the Emakumeak Zientzian programme, which brings together more than twenty institutions from the Basque Science and Technology Network and has become a leading initiative in promoting careers in STEAM and raising the profile of women scientists and technologists.

The prize in the Young Researcher category has been awarded to Ana Laguna Pradas, a researcher from La Mancha who is a data scientist with over 15 years’ experience in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

She is currently involved in scientific research as an entrepreneur and co-founder of Zoundream, a health tech start-up specialising in the interpretation of babies’ cries, not only from a communicative perspective but also for the early detection of medical conditions or atypical neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.

She previously formed part of the BBVA D&A team, supporting the bank’s Digital Marketing and Sales department in analysing the behaviour of digital users. She has worked abroad at two start-ups: Syllabs, which specialises in Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Ezakus, which excels in profiling advertising audiences using browsing cookies. She is also the founder of a Data for Social Good NGO and, in recent years, has been combining technological entrepreneurship with teaching at Comillas University.