Anna Traveset receives the Malaspina National Research Award
The IMEDEA researcher is distinguished for her career in island ecology in a year in which the center revalidates the maximum state recognition
PalmIMEDEA researcher Anna Traveset has been recognized with the National Research Award in the Alejandro Malaspina modality, within the field of Natural Resource Sciences and Technologies. The award recognizes a scientific career of international reference focused on the study of ecological interactions and biodiversity in island ecosystems.
The award ceremony was held this Monday at the Palau Reial de Pedralbes, in Barcelona, presided over by King Felipe VI and the Minister of Science, Diana Morant. Institutional and academic representatives also attended, including the director of IMEDEA, Alejandro Orfila, the Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera, and the rector of the UIB, Jaume Carot.
Upon receiving the award, Traveset advocated for the collective nature of research: “It is an award that I particularly value, for its prestige and because it recognizes the work I have done all these years. But I accept it, above all, on behalf of all the people with whom I have worked throughout my career, because research is teamwork or, at least, I don't know how to understand it any other way”.
Biodiversity of the Islands
Trained at the University of Barcelona and a doctor from the University of Pennsylvania, the researcher has dedicated a large part of her career to understanding how plant and animal species interact and how these links shape the biodiversity of the Islands, from both an ecological and evolutionary perspective. Her work also focuses on how the major drivers of global change —such as invasive species or environmental alterations— modify these delicate balances.
Based in the Balearic Islands, Traveset has projected her research on a global scale, with studies and projects in archipelagos such as the Canary Islands, the Galapagos, the Seychelles, or the Berlengas, as well as collaborations in Europe, America, and Asia. In 2022, she obtained one of the prestigious Advanced Grant awards from the European Research Council, with the aim of analyzing the vulnerability and resilience of island ecosystems to global change.
Beyond individual recognition, the award reinforces the role of science produced in the Islands. The director of IMEDEA emphasized that this is the second consecutive year that the center has received the highest state scientific award, a fact that, he said, “demonstrates the high level and power of the research carried out in the Balearic Islands”.
The National Research Awards, created in 1982, are considered the most prestigious in the State and recognize scientists with consolidated careers and international projection. In the case of IMEDEA, this new distinction continues a trajectory of excellence that had already been recognized in previous editions.