Pedro Miguel Echenique
“Science is much more than its practical applications. Science is not a fixed set of dogmas. It is an intellectual adventure, a human adventure that in recent years has changed our perception of the world we live in and of ourselves”. (Opening address at the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, 31 May 2017).
Ongi etorri – welcome – to the personal website of Pedro Miguel Echenique, founder and President of the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC).
Born in Navarra (Isaba, 1950), he lives with his family in Donostia-San Sebastian. He holds a degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Navarra (1972), a PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1977), and also a PhD (1976) and ScD (1998) from the University of Cambridge. The list of academic titles includes six honorary doctorates from six universities: Valladolid University, Public University of Navarra, Complutense University of Madrid, Aalto University in Finland, Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Pedro Miguel Echenique has combined teaching with research, focusing on condensed matter physics. He has supervised 27 doctoral theses. He has over 400 articles published in books and journals, including Nature and Science. He has taken part in over a hundred international conferences as a guest and plenary lecturer. He has also given lectures at centres throughout Europe, America and Japan. His long list of awards includes the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research (1998) and the Max Planck Physics Prize (1998). He has been an Honorary Member of the EPS (European Physical Society) since 2018.
When the first Basque Government was formed after Franco’s dictatorship – presided over by the Basque Prime Minister Carlos Garaikoetxea – he was appointed Minister of Education (1980-1983) and subsequently became Minister of Education and Culture and Spokesperson for the Government (1983-1984). He was an advocate and rapporteur for the Law on the Standardisation of Basque Language Use. A scientist’s foray into politics, driven by his devotion to his country.
Echenique’s work has not been limited to classrooms and research laboratories. He was the driving force behind the creation of Jakiunde (the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of the Basque Country), of which he was the first President (2007-2012), and where he continues to be the Honorary President. He was involved in setting up the Physical Materials Centre (CFM) – a CSIC-UPV Joint Centre (1999) – and later, the nanoGUNE Cooperative Research Centre (2009). However, his greatest achievement was the creation of the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), which was opened in 2000. Echenique is a natural-born entrepreneur in his field. An avid reader, his other hobbies include mountaineering and cycling.
Research
My research activity began with intense, obsessive personal commitment, above all seeking to contribute something new, to add a small booklet – as Cajal put it – to the vast library of knowledge, rather than carrying all of that library in my head. The philosopher Whitehead rightly remarked that the researcher seeks to know in order to discover, rather than discovering in order to know, which is more the province of the learned scholar. Anyone who has experienced the pleasure of seeing something for the first time, no matter how small, the “moment of discovery”, will be hooked forever and find it difficult to give up research.
News
The course “45 years of science and technology development in the Basque Country from the perspective of Pedro Miguel Etxenike,” organized by the Summer Courses of the University of the Basque Country and held yesterday, September 30, at the Miramar Palace, analyzed the evolution of science and technology in the Basque Country over the last…
Hundreds of people gathered in Roncal to celebrate the first Isaba Film Day, an event that took place on Sunday, June 29. This enthusiastic corner of the Roncal Valley actively preserves the oldest cinema in the Navarrese Pyrenees thanks to volunteers. The cinema dates back to the 1940s and has also been the setting for…
Gipuzkoa Hotels recognizes Pedro Miguel Echenique with its annual award for promoting Gipuzkoa as a leading center for professional events The Annual Meeting of Gipuzkoa Hotels, held today at the newly opened Hotel Luze San Sebastián, brought together the main representatives of the tourism sector in the territory of Gipuzkoa. The Gipuzkoa Hotels Association, part…
