04/10/2016

CLH renews its collaboration with the series of conferences “Society in Pursuit of References” of the University of La Rioja

  • Biochemist Margarita Salas will open the new edition next January
  • This series of conferences is one of the acts with which the University of La Rioja will celebrate its 25th Anniversary

The Chairman of the CLH Group, José Luis López de Silanes, and the Rector of the University of la Rioja, Julio Rubio García, have renewed the collaboration agreement for the organisation of the series of conferences named Society in pursuit of references.

Under this agreement, Society in pursuit of references, which emerged within the programme of the Summer Sessions of the University of La Rioja 2013, will change its format and will take place during the academic year, therefore becoming one of the activities with which the University of La Rioja will celebrate its 25th Anniversary next year.

Society in pursuit of references is based on the idea that crises are not only economy-related. Lack of honesty in public life, loss of trustworthiness of some institutions or loss of virtues are part of a reality that universities should not only witness but also help fight against.

Through this series of conferences, the CLH Group and the University of La Rioja wish to offer a platform where those with talent, those who perform their work with honesty, those who are audacious, those who have succeeded or are willing to excel can be heard. In summary, where those that are and should be a reference can speak out.

Margarita Salas, a reference

Biochemist Margarita Salas will be responsible for opening the new edition of Society in pursuit of references in January 2017. A disciple of the Nobel Prize winner Severo Ochoa, she is a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Spanish Royal Academy. She has also been awarded honoris causa doctorates by ten universities and, among other distinctions, she was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Alphonso X the Wise and the Gold Medal for Work Merit.

Like her, those who have spoken in previous editions are role models who should inspire the work of many professionals in Spain to enable us to have confidence in ourselves and in this country.

The following personalities have participated in previous editions of Society in pursuit of references: José Antonio Zufiría, general manager of IBM Europe, Rafael Matesanz, president of the Spanish National Transplant Organisation, photographer Manu Brabo, winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize, pharmacologist Margarita Arboix and philosopher Ángel Gabilondo in 2013; economist Antón Costas, Ana M.ª Llopis, chair of the supermarket chain DIA, and philosopher Daniel Innerarity in 2014; biochemist Mariano Barbacid, José M.ª Vera, general manager of Oxfam Intermón, astrophysicist Javier Armentia and philosopher José Antonio Marina.