2018 Award ceremony of the V Innovation Prize of the Alberto Elzaburu Foundation

Recognition of the effort of young entrepreneurs and researchers

The Alberto Elzaburu Foundation purpose is to protect and promote innovation and industrial and intellectual property, as progress axes and key factors for entrepreneurship, employment, investment, development and business activity. The foundation organizes each year a prize to reward the effort of young entrepreneurs and researchers as well as to highlight the value of the research work developed in Spain.

On this occasion, the V Prize to Innovation went to Mr. David Martínez Martín and his patent 'Method for controlling a scanning microscope', property of the Autonomus University of Madrid (UAM, by its Spanish acronym). The invention consists in a controlling system for atomic force microscopes that allows the study and handling of systems with micrometric and nanometric sizes. The patent has been granted in Spain (ES2 403 551 B1) and it has been extended by a PCT application (WO 2013/053968 A1) to Germany (DE 112012004221 T5) and the United States (granted patent, US 9 091 704 B2).

The jury, made up by well-known personalities, highlighted the vast trajectory of this young researcher from Burgos (Spain) who has been working in Switzerland since 2012 for the University ETH Zurich and the company Nanosurf AG in the development of a commercial prototype for his Cytomass Monitor. During this time Mr. David Martínez has created various patented inventions in the field of nanotechnology and molecular biology whose licences are being applied by multinational companies and which are expected to become very important in cancer research areas, cellular differentiation or new pharmaceutical development.

The act, held past October 30th in the MAPFRE Foundation auditorium in Madrid, was attended by relevant personalities such as the Director of the SPTO, the President of the Alberto Elzaburu Foundation, the President of MAPFRE, the Director for Research and Innovation of the Madrid Regional Government and the Director of OTRI (from the University UNED).

From the SPTO we would like to congratulate the winner and thank all participants for their intense work in the field of research, which obviously has a deep impact in our society progress. We are pleased to confirm that the competition level follows an upward trend that we hope will continue in future editions.