Merit Award for the Spanish engineer Esther Rodríguez Villegas – Science

The objective of this award is to recognize every two years the career of a “consolidated and internationally renowned” Spanish researcher who works in the United Kingdom and who “has been fundamental in the advancement of science,” the organization reported on Thursday in a release.

Among the nominees of this edition of the 2020 award, postponed due to the health crisis of covid-19, Rodríguez Villegas, professor in Low Power Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London, member of the Royal Academy of Engineering, has emerged as the winner. , director of the Wearable Technologies Lab and founder of the Acurable company.

With the University of Seville as his alma mater, where he graduated the first of his class in Physics and did his doctorate, Rodríguez Villegas flew to the British capital to join the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London University in 2002.

From her area of ​​expertise, low power electronics, the professor has promoted the development of portable sensors for physiological monitoring with a focus on healthcare applications.

In 2016 he founded the “start-up” Acurable, which markets advanced wearable devices to accurately diagnose and monitor respiratory conditions.

In addition to his academic and entrepreneurial activity, it is worth highlighting his career in innovation and technology transfer, for which he has received numerous awards, including two scholarships from the European Research Council, an award from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a Silver Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Rodríguez Villegas thanked this “totally unexpected” and “particularly emotional” recognition, he said, for being “a Spanish award.”

“Regardless of where I live or where I carry out my activity,” said the award-winning engineer in statements to the CERU Society, “and any recognition that comes from Spain has a special value”.