La II Jornada ‘Salamanca: Por Cajal y la Ciencia’ en el Teatro Liceo.

El Teatro Liceo will host the II Conference ‘Salamanca: For Cajal and Science’ on March 25th, a tribute to the father of Neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal. His legacy transcends the boundaries of Science and stands as a fundamental pillar not only in the understanding of the human brain but also in the consolidation and advancement of Science in Spain. The Mayor of Salamanca, Carlos García Carbayo; the rector of the USAL, Juan Manuel Corchado; the rector of the UPSA, Santiago García-Jalón de la Lama; and the vice president of the Ramón Areces Foundation, José María Medina, presented the conference today at a press conference held at the Centro Internacional del Español (CIE).

Over thirty prestigious speakers from various fields will participate, making Salamanca the capital of Science for the second consecutive year. The event is organized by the City Council of Salamanca, the University of Salamanca, the Pontifical University of Salamanca, and the Ramón Areces Foundation. The National Cybersecurity Institute, the Ministry of Culture through its Documentary Center of Historical Memory, and twenty scientific societies and research institutes have also joined them.

The opening ceremony of the conference will take place at 9:30 a.m., with the Mayor of Salamanca, the rector of the USAL, the rector of the UPSA, the vice president of the Ramón Areces Foundation, and Sebastiao Helvecio Ramos de Castro, vice president of the Rui Barbosa Institute.

The presentations will then unfold in various thematic blocks: Science and Society, participatory and interactive activities, present and future, and Artificial Intelligence.

Conference thematic blocks

Among the speakers participating in the first thematic block, ‘Science and Society’, are: Cristina Garmendia, president of the COTEC Foundation; Adolfo García Sastre, professor and director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York; and Jesús San Miguel, specialist in Hematology and Hemotherapy at the University Clinic of Navarra, among others.

In the second thematic block, ‘Participatory and Interactive Activities’, discussions will revolve around Cajal and perceptions, Cajal and electric circuits, its relationship with sound, touch, sight, or smell. Participants in this section include the president of the Spanish Society of Neuroscience, Javier Cudeiro, the head of the Neurology department at the National Hospital for Paraplegics, Antonio Oliviero, and the professors from the USAL, Enrique Saldaña and Eduardo Weruaga, among others.

Regarding the thematic block ‘Present and Future’, speakers will include: Eva Nogales, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Berkeley, or Antonio Campos, academic of the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain where he holds the chair of Histology that Santiago Ramón y Cajal once held, among other speakers.

Lastly, in the block on ‘Artificial Intelligence’, interventions are planned by Manuel Martín Merino, professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty of Informatics of the UPSA, or by José Luis Carreras, professor of Radiology and Physical Medicine at the Complutense University, among others.

Entry to all activities is free until full capacity is reached. The progress of the activities can also be followed at the link: santiagoramonycajal.org.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) is recognized as the founder of modern neuroscience. He studied medicine at the University of Zaragoza and specialized in histology and pathological anatomy. Although he would become one of the most important scientists in history, he also stood out for his brilliant artistic side. Drawing and photography were his great passions. These interests were fundamental to his training and scientific development, as through high-quality artistic drawings, he was able to illustrate the anatomy of the nervous system.

One of his greatest scientific contributions was the well-known Neuron Doctrine, which argues that the nervous system is made up of specialized and independent entities that communicate with each other, the neurons. The main challenge faced by this theory was the inability to clearly visualize cells within the complexity of the nervous system. Despite this, he overcame the adversities of his time, and thanks to the Golgi technique, he managed to visualize neurons as individual units, a key element in understanding the brain’s structure. For this, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1906.

Through his renowned literary works, D. Santiago sought to convey the main values that helped him in his early days as a researcher: mental independence, perseverance in work, and intellectual curiosity. In short, that «every great work is the fruit of patience and perseverance, combined with a tenaciously focused attention, for months and years, on a particular object.»

He was a polymath interested in Nature, painting and photography, bodybuilding, hypnotism, chess, writing, medicine, critical thinking, educational and scientific research management. In addition to being one of the most relevant and revolutionary scientists in the world of science, he was also an exceptional human being. His figure as an exemplary university student and citizen helped to enhance the image of Spaniards worldwide. Cajal remains alive in the universal collective unconscious, encouraging the world to follow the path of knowledge, Science, human and technological development, with the lofty purpose of making a better, more prosperous, supportive, and harmonious world.

In a world where challenges related to brain health and neurodiversity are increasingly pressing, Cajal’s legacy remains highly relevant, offering a beacon of wisdom with his exemplary life experience, and a call for collaboration and innovation in seeking solutions to the problems of our current and future society, from different disciplines.