Félix Goñi (University of the Basque Country)

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Félix María Goñi Urcelay - Prof. of Biochemistry, University of the Basque Country - was awarded an Honoris Causa on the 7th December 2016.

Photo : Félix Goñi © University of the Basque Country
Félix Goñi © University of the Basque Country

Félix Goñi received his MD from the University of Navarra in Spain in 1975. After several stays in the UK (working alongside Prof. Denis Chapman at the University of London on the topic of cell membranes) and Canada, he started at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao as Assistant Professor of biochemistry in 1978 before his nomination as Professor in 1984.

Research, collaboration, distinctions

Prof. Goñi is known for introducing the topic of cellular biophysics in Spain and created the Institute for Biophysics (CSIC/UPV/EHU) in 2002. This institute has since grown to accommodate nearly 20 research groups in a building newly inaugurated in 2016.

Prof. Goñi, a pioneer in the application of spectroscopies for the fusion between cells and viruses involving lipids and proteins, has published around 420 papers with over 11,000 citations. For over twenty years, he has held various government responsibilities as well as holding Presidential positions within Scientific Societies such as the Spanish Biophysical Society, the Federation of European Biochemical Societies and the international relationship committee of the USA Biophysical Society, etc.

Félix Goñi’s collaboration with the University of Bordeaux goes back to 1985 when he worked with Jean Dufourcq and Pierre Bothorel on model membranes at the Paul Pascal Research Centre. Since 2010, he collaborates with the CBMN (Institute of Chemistry and Biology of Membranes and Nano-objects) and in 2016 was a visiting professor at the University of Bordeaux.

Other awards attributed to Félix Goñi include the Avanti/EBSA (European Biophysical Societies Association) medal in 2013.

The DHC for Prof. Goñi was proposed by Prof. Erick Dufourc, Director of the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of Membranes and Nano-objects (CBMN).