The University of Salamanca confers Doctor Honoris Causa degree to Shinya Yamanaka
The Senate of Doctors of the University of Salamanca (USal) approved the awarding of honorary doctorates to three contemporary personalities of science and culture: the Japanese physician Shinya Yamanaka, the Irish physicist Margaret Mary Murnane and the poet Antonio Colinas.
The awarding of the honorary doctorate to Shinya Yamanaka was presented by the Faculty of Medicine and defended by José-Abel Flores, director of the Spanish-Japanese Cultural Center.
This award is in addition to the declaration of the year 2023 as Japan Year at the University of Salamanca. The privileged relationship that the University maintains with Japan and its academic institutions, as well as the visit of the Emperors to the USal and the repeated occasions on which the academic authorities have been received by Their Majesties -most recently in September last year- certify this synergy and mutual interest.
Dr. Yamanaka, from the University of Kyoto, has been awarded the most prestigious prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and has links with Spain, with recognitions such as the Frontiers of Knowledge Award or that of Honorary Member of the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain. His research has served to promote the field of stem cells within biomedical research, accelerating the possibility of moving cellular regenerative medicine from the laboratory to the clinic.