Pedro Miguel Etxenike

Pedro Miguel Etxenike Landiribar, also known as Pedro Miguel Echenique (born 8 June 1950, Isaba, Navarre), is a scientist specialising in Solid State Physics.

In 1998, he was awarded the Max Planck Prize for Physics and that same year he received the Príncipe de Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research for his discoveries in the theoretical prediction of surface image electronic states on solids. He has also made important contributions in the field of ion-matter interactions and electron energy losses in tunnelling electron microscopy. He was the first Minister of the Department of Education of the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community between 1980 and 1983, and Minister of the Department of Education and Culture and spokesperson of the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community between 1983 and 1984. Today, he is Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and President of the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC).

He was designated Universal Basque in 1998, is a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium, and also a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is Honorary Chairman of Jakiunde, the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of the Basque Country, and since 2012 has chaired the panel of judges in the Príncipe de Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research.

Training

He graduated in Physics at the University of Navarre in 1972 and was awarded the Special Degree Prize and End-of-Studies Award in 1973. In 1976, he was awarded a PhD in Physics by the University of Cambridge and in 1977 he received a Doctorate in Physics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he was awarded the Special Doctorate Prize in 1978.

Professional activity

Since 1976, he has been a consultant of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee, United States). He completed his first post-doctoral studies as a visiting researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and after that as a Nordita Fellow of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, with various stays in Lund and Gothenburg (Sweden) between 1976 and 1977. Two years later, he took up a position as Professor of Solid State Physics at the University of Barcelona, from which he stepped down in 1980 to join the first Government of the Basque Autonomous Community as Minister of Education, a position he held until 1983 when he became Minister of Education and Culture and Spokesperson for the Government until the end of the legislative period.

One of the milestones in this legislative period was the Law on the Normalisation of the use of Basque, for which Etxenike was the driving force and proponent. These early years of the Department of Education were also crucial in putting in place most of the foundations in the education system of the Basque Autonomous Community, including freedom of education. The setting up of R&D centres and the internationalisation of study scholarships were also promoted.

After this spell in politics, he returned to academia: first in Cambridge, as visiting lecturer at the Cavendish Laboratory, and finally at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), as Professor of Condensed Matter Physics, work that he pursues to this day.

Today, he is the president of the DIPC research centre (Donostia International Physics Center) founded in 1999, and chairman of the Governing Board of the Nanoscience Cooperative Research Centre, CIC nanoGUNE (2018).[1] He was the first chairman of Jakiunde, the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of the Basque Country from 2007 to 2012, and has recently been appointed its honorary chairman.[2] He is also vice-chairman of the Euskampus Foundation, the Campus of International Excellence of the University of the Basque Country.

In the past he was the promoter and creator of the mixed CSIC-UPV/EHU centre, the Centre for Materials Physics (CFM) and was its first director (1999-2001). Other positions held include membership of the governing board of the CSIC (National Scientific Research Council) (2001-2007) and vice-chairmanship of Innobasque (2008-2012).

Honors and Awards (selection)

In 1998 he was awarded the D. Sc. by the University of Cambridge.[8] He has received honorary doctorates from the universities Complutense de Madrid, Valladolid, Navarra,[7] Aalto University (2016),[9] and of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (2017).[10]

References

  1. ↑ "CIC nanoGUNE Activity Report 2015/16" (pdf). 2016-12-12. p. 100.
  2. ↑ "Etxenike Landiribar, Pedro Miguel" (in Spanish). Jakiunde. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  3. ↑ "APS Fellowship directory". For contributions to the theory of surface image states and of surface and bulk excitations.
  4. ↑ "Emilio Méndez Pérez y Pedro Miguel Echenique Landiríbar Premio Príncipe de Asturias de Investigación Científica y Técnica 1998" (in Spanish). 1998. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  5. ↑ "Premios de la RSEF" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  6. ↑ "Pedro Miguel Etxenike, galardonado con el Premio Nacional de Investigación" (pdf) (in Spanish). Diario Vasco. 2005-10-25. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  7. 1 2 "Excmo. Sr. D. PEDRO MIGUEL ECHENIQUE LANDIRÍBAR" (in Spanish). Real Academia de Ciencias. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  8. ↑ "Approved for degrees and certificates". Cambridge University Reporter. 1998-05-20. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  9. ↑ "Honorary Doctorates of Technology 2016". aalto.fi. 2016. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  10. ↑ "Pedro Miguel Echenique, nombrado Doctor Honoris Causa por la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo". 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  • "Short Biography: Excmo. Sr. D. PEDRO MIGUEL ECHENIQUE LANDIRÍBAR" (in Spanish). Real Academdia de Ciencias. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  • Personal webpage of Etxenike
  • Etxenike's publications
  • An interview on Euskonews
  • The webpage of the DIPC
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