Margarita Salas

Margarita Salas Falgueras, 1st Marchioness of Canero (30 November 1938 – 7 November 2019) was a Spanish scientist, medical researcher, and author in the fields of biochemistry and molecular genetics. 
She started developing molecular biology in Spain and also worked as an honorary associate professor ofCSIC, at the Severo Ochoa Biology Center (UAM). In 2016 she became the first women ever to receive the Echegaray medal, that was given to her by the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences ( Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales). 
Salas' discovery of the bacterial virus Φ29 DNA polymerase was recognized by the Spanish National Research Council as the highest-grossing patent in Spain. Her cumulative work, as described by "The Local" in 2019"," "invented a faster, simpler and more reliable way to replicate trace amounts of DNA into quantities large enough for full genomic testing."
She was the first scientific woman ever elected to the Royal Spanish Academy. Shortly before her death, she was awarded the 2019 European Inventor Award. Salas was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos I in Summer 2008 with the hereditary title of "Marquesa de Canero". Throughout her career in academia, she advised more than 40 doctoral students and published over 200 scientific articles. She was an outspoken advocate of women and feminism in science.
Early life and career.
Margarita Salas Falgueras was born on 30 November 1938 in Canero, a parish of Valdés, Asturias, Spain. She was the daughter of José Salas Martínez (1905-1962), a psychiatric doctor who influeced her, encouraging her interest in science, and Margarita Falgueras Gatell (1912/1913-2014), a teacher. 
She had two brothers who were also scientist: José Salas Falgueras (1937-2008) and María Luisa "Marisa" Salas Falgueras.
At the age of sixteen he went to Madrid to carry out the Chemistry and Medicine entrance tests.She entered the faculty of Chemistry and in the summer of 1958 met Severo Ochoa, who had influence on her career and oriented her towards biochemistry. She graduated from the Complutense University of Madrid with a B.A. in chemistry and obtained a PhD degree in 1963, with Alberto Sols (of the Spanish National Research Council) as doctoral supervisor. 
After finishing their thesis, in August of 1964, she travelled to the United States with her husband, Eladio Viñuela, whom she married in 1963,to work with Severo Ochoa. On their return to Spain, Salas and her husband established a laboratory to research molecular biology at the Center for Biological Research in Madrid. Viñuela began a different field of research in 1970, studying the African plague virus, so that Salas would be recognised on her own merits. Salas was a professor of molecular genetics at the Complutense University Faculty of Chemistry from 1968 to 1992. She was also a professor of research at the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology in Madrid from 1974, and its director from 1992 until January 1994. 
She was president of the from 1988 until 1992. She then served as the director of the Foundation for Biomedical Research at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital (2001–2004), and of the Institute of Spain (1995–2003). She was responsible for promoting Spanish research in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. She was an honorary professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in the field of biotechnology.
On November 7, 2019, she died of a cardiac arrest after a complication of a digestive ailment from which she was to be operated.
Scientific career.
Salas was the first scientific woman elected in the Royal Spanish Academy. She was appointed on 20 December 2001, and took up her seat on 4 June 2003. On 11 July 2008, Salas was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos I with the hereditary title of "Marquesa de Canero". She supervised more than 40 doctoral students and published over 200 scientific articles.
Early work.
After obtaining an undergraduate degree in chemistry, Margarita Salas joined the laboratory of Alberto Sols, where she completed her doctoral thesis on the anomeric specificity of glucose-6-phosphate isomerase. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the United States for three years (1964–1967) at New York University with Severo Ochoa.
Bacterial virus Φ29 DNA polymerase.
During her time in Ochoa's laboratory, Salas determined the directionality of genetic information reading. She also discovered and characterized the Φ29 phage DNA polymerase, which has biotechnological applications due to its high DNA amplification properties. Her research allowed trace amounts of DNA to be replicated more quickly and reliably, making DNA analysis accessible in fields such as archaeology and forensics, where only trace amounts may be retrieved, and in oncology. The method is now called multiple displacement amplification.
In 2012 she was professor ad honorem at the Center for Molecular Biology Severo Ochoa, CSIC's research center and the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), where she continued to work on the bacterial virus Φ29, which infects a non-pathogenic bacterium "Bacillus subtilis".
Scientific activity.
Salas published more than three hundred and fifty publications in international magazines or books and about ten in national media.. She also has 8 patents, and presented papers at 398 conferences and seminars. The patent relating to her discovery of Φ29 generated more royalties for the Spanish National Research Council than any of its other patents, with 50% of its patent royalty income deriving from that one patent.
Recognitions during her scientific career.
She took part on some of the most prestigious scientific societies and institutes nationally and internationally. She was awarded with the Rey Jaime I Research Award in 1994. She was the director of the Spanish Institute (1995-2003). 
She also directed the Severo Ochoa Foundation y and the annual course of the School of Molecular Biology “Eladio Viñuela” of the Menéndez Pelayo International University in Santander.
She was a member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Science, of the Royal Spanish Academy, 13 of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, of the American Society for Microbiology and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among others.
In addition, she was named honorary doctorate by the next universities: Rey Juan Carlos, University of Oviedo, Extremadura, Murcia, Politécnica de Madrid, Jaén, Cádiz, Málaga, UNED university, University of Menéndez Pelayo International, Carlos III of Madrid and of Burgos.
In 1992 a Secondary Education Institute in Majadahonda (Community of Madrid) was named Margarita Salas. Currently there is another Institute of Secondary Education called the same in Seseña (Toledo).
She was the adopted daughter of the Council of Valdés (Asturias) since 1997, and of Gijon since 2004.
In May 2007, she started being a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, thus becoming the first Spanish woman to join the institution.
She started being a member of the Royal Spanish Academy in 2003, and its censor in 2008.
Several streets were named as her: in 2006 a street in Gijon, in 2009 one in Arroyo de la Encomienda, and in 2011 another street in the Almería Science-Technology Park.
In 2014 she was selected by Quo magazine, in collaboration with CSIC and the Higher Council for Sports, for the first "Spanish Selection of Science", made up of thirteen internationally renowned Spanish scientists.
In March of 2015, Casas de Asturias in Alcalá de Henares and Alcobendas and the Asturian centers of Madrid and Tres Cantos distinguished her with the title of «Asturiana Universal» for her «brilliant and successful international career as a scientist and researcher in the field of molecular biology».
In 2018, from the IES Margarita Salas, which bears her name in Seville, a tribute was paid to her by the students carrying out tests related to the life and findings of Margarita Salas.
In April of 2018, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universidad Autónoma of Barcelona, and she dedicated her speech to bacteriophage Φ29.
In 2018 she was included in the Periodic Table of the Scientists to commemorate in 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Mendeleev.
In December of 2018, the name change of the Eliseo Godoy school (Franco's teacher and military) from Zaragoza to Margarita Salas was approved.
On December 10th of 2019, the CSIC Biological Research Center was renamed the Margarita Salas Biological Research Center.
In 2020, she was named after a new species of gastropod discovered in Canary waters (Rissoella salaae).
Her role as a woman in science.
When Margarita returned to Spain in 1967, she was not known for her contributions to science, but for being Eladio Viñuelas' wife. Moreover, her scientific work was not recognized as she was a woman, since at that time women scientists were not recognized for their work. In most cases, the findings were attributed to men. 
She pioneered many tasks that until then had only been carried out by men. Margarita did not consider this a merit, but rather an easy thing: as no woman had done before, it was easy to be the first.
When she won the Severo Ochoa Prize for Research, Alberto Sols, who had directed her thesis, admitted that when she came to her laboratory to do the doctorate, he decided to give her a minor research topic so it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t pull it off. Margarita did not give importance to the problem, saying that this was not a problem of Alberto, but of the time in which they lived. 
Margarita helped make science accessible to women. Always wanted to stay in touch with youth and inspire other women to take an interest in science.
Margarita Salas was also known for her work as a mentor of many scientists such as María Blasco, Marisol Soengas, and Jesús Ávila.
Personal life.
In 1963, she married ]. Salas and Viñuela had one daughter. She was reported as saying that she delayed motherhood until she was 37, when she felt that she could combine both professional and family life. She died on 7 November 2019 in Madrid at age 80.
Awards and honors.
Salas won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in its first year, 2000. She was a member of Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, European Academy of Sciences and Arts, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Academy of Microbiology, United States National Academy of Sciences, and the Severo Ochoa Foundation. She was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Oviedo, University of Extremadura, University of Murcia and the University of Cádiz.