Come to Oviedo…

Everything is ready in Oviedo where in a few hours the XXX edition of the Prince of Asturias Awards will take place. Since May this year, the Foundation has bestowed its eight awards in different categories as Arts, Social Sciences, Communication and Humanities, International Cooperation, Technical and Scientific Research, Letters, Sport and Concord.

The prize for the Arts was to Richard Serra, an American sculptor which is considered the great sculptor of our time. A man who has the virtue of turn the steel or the concrete into a delicate master piece, as he did with Snake, a work made for the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

It is always a cause for special joy to Spaniards when a person from Spain received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards, as is the case this year with the award for sport that was bestowed to the Spanish National Football Team, the current European and World Champions. As the jury said they are a human example of the drive to excel, team spirit, modesty and commitment to sporting values.

With the Social Sciences award, the jury has wished to pay tribute to the archeological team who has unearthed the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Xi’an, a research project that that has revealed to the world the cultural importance of China and of its civilization.

David Julius, Linda Watkins and the Israeli scientist Baruch Minke were Laureate for the Technical and Scientific Research award. Their work and researches is so complex that is almost impossible to explain, but, as someone said, this three biochemists will liberate us from the pain. The scientific community considerer them as world leaders in sensorial Neurobiology. They have discovered, from complementary approaches, the causes and mechanisms via which pain is produced and perceived.

The Transplantation Society and the Spanish National Transplant Organization (ONT) were laureate with the prize for International Cooperation. A well deserved award by the Spanish side as this country is the world leader in transplantation since 15 years ago.

In Communications and Humanities, Alain Touraine and Zygmunt Bauman are for the award Jury two representatives of the most brilliant intellectual tradition of European thought.

This year the Prince of Asturias Awards for letters was to the Franco-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf. The last of the eight Awards, Concord, was bestowed to Spanish NOG Manos Unidas, a Catholic organization founded in 1960 and dedicated to fight against under-development, illness, oppression, lack of education and hunger.

The presentation ceremony will take place this evening at 6:00pm (Spanish hours), at Campoamor theatre in Oviedo, it will be presided over by TRH the Prince and the Princess of Asturias. This morning, in about two hours TRH will attend the traditional audience with the 2010 laureates at the Reconquista hotel.

As on previous occasions, Spanish National Television and Radio will provide the official signal of the Prince of Asturias Awards grand presentation ceremony and the audience with the laureates.

For all of you interested, each ceremony may be watched live on the official Prince of Asturias Foundation website or through the TVE web site.

Filed under Spain
Tagged Felipe VI of Spain, Princess of Asturias Awards.