Manuel Lora-Tamayo Martín

In May 1933 he became professor of Chemistry and held positions at Cadiz (1933), Seville (1935) and Madrid (1942). He served as Deputy Vice Chancellor at the Universities of Seville (1942) and Madrid (1945).

After moving to Madrid, he stepped up his collaboration with the CSIC in the fields of organic chemistry and scientific documentation.

In the 50s had a number of key responsibilities in the main Spanish research institutions: Member of the Nuclear Energy Board (1951) and Chairman of the newly created Advisory Committee on Scientific and Technical Research (1958). He also headed the Ministry of Education from 1962 to 1968.

Subsequently he held various positions in scientific institutions: effective President of the CSIC (1967-1971), of the Institute of Spain (1972-1978) and the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences (1970-1985). He was a member of the Council of the Realm (1972), an institution of which he came to hold the vice-presidency (1974), and a Deputy of the Cortes between 1962 and 1975.

He wrote numerous scientific publications. He held the major Spanish awards and several foreign ones (Portuguese Grand Cross of Public Instruction, the German Civil Merit medal, the St. Gregory medal of the Vatican and the Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit, France). He was a member of more than twenty academic bodies among the Heidelberg Academy of Science, the Paris National Library of Medicine, the National Academies of Sciences of the Netherlands and Italy and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Paris (1961), the UNED and the Chemical Institute of Sarria.