Professor Justo Aznar Lucea

Justo Aznar Lucea, Doctor of Medicine,Extraordinary Prizewinner of the University of Navarra. Head of the Department of Clinical Biopathology and Coordinator of the Biochemical Research Department of the University Hospital La Fe of Valencia from 1974 until his retirement in 2006. Currently Director of the Institute of Life Sciences of the Catholic University of Valencia.

308 published research papers, of which some 300 in peer review journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Journal of Critical Investigation, Circulation, Blood, etc. Some 30 chapters written in variious books and editor of four, two of which are international in character. He has belonged to various Editorial Committees ofjournals in his field, and for 25 years was Head Editor of the Biological Diagnostic Journal of the Spanish Association of Clinical Biopathology.

He has won several prizes, amongst these the "Albert Sols" prize for the best medical science research paper in 1998, and this year the Medical College of Valencia awarded him the Santiago Grisolia Prize for the best research project. In 2006 he received the "Health and Society" Prize for Professional Achievement from the Health Council of the Autonomous Government of Valencia. In November 2013 he was awarded the Professional Achievement Prize of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Valencia.

He is a member of the Royal Academies of Medicine of both the Valencian Autonomous Region and of Spain.  

Director of the Institute of Life Sciences of the Catholic University of Valencia since 2005, and Director of the Bioethical Observatory and of the Masters in Bioethics programmes of the same University. He has also won various in the field of bioethics, including the "3rd Millenium Prize" of 2007 of the Academy of Sciences, Technology, Education, and Humanities.

He is a Member of the Sub-Commission for the Family and Life of the Spanish Conference of Bishops, and since 2005 of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Since its foundation in 1998 he has been President of the Spanish Federqation of Pro-Life Organizations, and he currentlu is President of the Valencian Association for the Defence of Life.