Profiles

Biochemistry

Margarita Salas (1938, Canero [Asturias]) has done a lot for science in Spain. In fact, apart from spending many years doing research in the United States, she decided to come back to her country of origin (1967) considering that in Spain there was still a lot to do in science. Together with Eladio Viñuela, husband and tireless co-worker, they launched a research race that has finally ended up with the production of a school. This school has made her to be recognized globally: she has become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007), an honour not many can enjoy. Also, she is the first Spanish woman being part of the cited Academy.

Margarita Salas's curriculum is really broad, difficult to summarize in only a few paragraphs, as her professional career, very linked to the personal, has been truly large. With a degree in chemical sciences from the Universitat Complutense de Madrid, she subsequently carried out a doctoral thesis in biochemistry under the order of Alberto Sols (1961), to later venture to New York to work on a postdoctoral project. The proposal to leave came from Severo Ochoa directly.

Her stay at the department of Alberto Sols changed her life, as she met again with Eladio Viñuela, whom she eventually married. From this moment on, the professional and personal life of Margarita Salas would be linked to Eladio Viñuela's. After her Ph.D., both packed their suitcases and went to do research at the department Severo Ochoa in New York where they stayed for three years.

In 1967 the couple decided to try their luck in Spain. Thanks to the financing of the United States they started a new researching stage at the Biological Research Centre of the CSIC. And they were lucky. Soon the state subsidies for scientific research started to come and the difficult task they launched started to give results. They had students, they could do research and most important, they found things. Salas considers that the great contribution they made was the finding of the DNA polymerase.

Salas and Viñuela began to be important. And with this prestige, a new stage of administrative scientific posts started. Margarita Salas agreed to chair many societies and centres. The first was the presidency of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry (1988). Then, a number of more appointments. Amongst them, the management of the Molecular Biology Centre Severo Ochoa (1992), as well as being part of several academies and societies: member of the Governing Board of the CSIC and, since 1997, of its Governing Council, of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, of the Spanish Royal Academy of Language, of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the American Academy of Microbiology, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and president of the Foundation Severo Ochoa.

Throughout her life, Salas has had two fights. On the one hand, the fight to turn Spain into a country where science is one of its bases for its development. On the other hand, and more linked to her career, the fact of being a woman, which has brought more than just one important personal conflict. However, Margarita Salas has achieved what many women of her time would have wished for: a relevant role in a world considered for men. Luckily, things have currently changed.

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