Consuelo de la Torre García-Quintana

Consuelo de la Torre, research professor at CSIC since 1984, developed her scientific career at Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB). Consuelo graduated on Pharmacy in 1961 and did her doctoral thesis under the direction of Prof. Gonzalo Giménez-Martín in CIB, beginning a long relationship with the center. When she defended her thesis in 1969, with 32 years, 4 out of her 5 daughters were born.

In 1970, she joined as scientific collaborator in CSIC in CIB and during some years stays in Oregon and Oxford Universities to further develop her own line of research, while studying the regulation of cell proliferation in plants. Her scientific career is prolific and exemplary, few women at that time managed to successfully carry out their work and establish their own research group. Her research allowed her to contribute to clarification of the bases regarding the genetic instability of plants by using onion as a model.

She was a renown scientist in her field and has numerous prices and honours, most of them in an international environment. She was Academic Correspondent of Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia and the first woman chosen as Honour academic of this institution. She was elected member of various international societies, such as European Cell Biology Organization (ECBO), International Cell Research Organization (ICRO), New York Academy of Sciences or the 1^st ESTA of the European Commission (1994-1997). She was also a founding member of the European Academy. Her CV includes more than 170 publications, 10 thesis and numerous contributions to congresses.

She was a pioneering woman, with a strong scientific leadership, able to balance her career as female researcher with a big family. She retired in 2008 and remained active and as ad honorem doctor until 2012.

Two of her favourite articles: 

-De la Torre, C., Fernández-Gómez, M.E., Giménez-Martín, G. (1975) Rate of nucleologenesis as a measure of gene activity. Nature 256: 503-505.

-Carballo, J.A., Pincheira, J., De la Torre, C. (2006) The G2 checkpoint activated by DNA damage does not prevent genome instability in plant cells. Biol. Res. 39: 331-340.