Alberto Sols García (1917–1989) was a Spanish researcher specializing in biochemistry, working especially on hexokinases. He effectively created biochemistry as a major discipline in Spain.
Alberto Sols | |
---|---|
Born | Alberto Sols García 2 February 1917 |
Died | 10 August 1989 | (aged 72)
Nationality | Spanish |
Known for | Investigation of hexokinases; carbohydrate metabolism |
Awards | Member of Real Academia Nacional de Medicina Placa de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biochemistry |
Institutions | Washington University School of Medicine Spanish National Research Council |
Alberto Sols was born in Sax, Alicante, on 2 February 1917, the son of Pedro Sols Lluch. He died in Denia, Alicante, on 10 August 1989. The house of his birth is now the Centro de Estudios y Archivo Histórico Municipal Alberto Sols.[1]
Sols studied medicine at the University of Valencia, and after working for three years, principally with Robert Crane[2] at Washington University in St. Louis, in the group of Nobel prizewinners Carl and Gerty Cori he returned to Spain in 1954, and created a research group at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). His work concerned hexokinases[3] and sugar phosphorylation in general.[4]
In 1963 he was Founding President of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry (now Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology—Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular: SEBBM).[5] He was also a member of scientific societies in the UK, USA, Argentina and Chile.
Sols received numerous prizes, and was the first holder of the premio Príncipe de Asturias de Investigación Científica y Técnica (1981).[6] In 1987 he received the National Research Prize "Santiago Ramón y Cajal" of the Ministry of Education.[7] In 1989 he was elected to the Royal National Academy of Medicine.[8]