The Royal Galician Academy of Sciences made public the awarding of the “Research Medals 2023” to five active Galician scientists from the universities of A Coruña (UDC), Santiago de Compostela (USC) and Vigo (UVigo). This distinction, now in its fifth edition, values unique and consolidated research careers developed in Galicia, in addition to encouraging the promotion of Galician science and technology to try to spread the appreciation of scientific values in society.

Among the award winners was the CITIC researcher and Professor of Statistics and Operations Research at the University of A Coruña, Ricardo Cao Abad, who was awarded the Enrique Vidal Abascal Medal of the Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science section. In this way, the Academy wanted to recognize the application of his work in fields as relevant as computation, genetics, neuroscience, oncology, energy or financial mathematics. He has developed an intense activity in statistical consultancy in health sciences, in the context of naval engineering, in the commercial sector and in industry. Also, Ricardo Cao, chairs since March 2020 the committee of experts of the Mathematical Action against Coronavirus, created by the Spanish Committee of Mathematics. He was appointed Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and awarded the Medal of the Society for Statistics and Operations Research. He is currently leading a project of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) for the improvement of data processing.

“I feel very honored to receive a distinction that bears the name of Enrique Vidal Abascal, a reference in the field of Mathematics. I want to extend this recognition to all researchers working in the field of Statistics in our community because there are many people dedicated to this task in the three Galician universities. Finally, I would like to thank CITIC for proposing me for this distinction and for being the meeting place in which to collaborate with the colleagues of the center,” said CITIC researcher Ricardo Cao.

The presentation of the medals will take place at the academic ceremony celebrating Science Day in Galicia, next Wednesday, October 4, at the Pazo de Fonseca, in Santiago.  In addition to the CITIC researcher, the scientists Jesús Salado, David Posada, Aurora Grandal and Fernando Obelleiro also received awards.