History - Retrospective - Seville 1992

• Host town
• List of prize winners
• Jury members

World Trade Centre - World Trade Centre Expo 92 Building Auditorium

In the context of a very special year for Spanish culture, with the Olimpic Games in Barcelona and Madrid as European City of culture, Seville sheltered the EU Contest for Young Scientists in 1992. Five centuries had gone by since Columbus and his brave adventure through the Atlantic Ocean, five hundred years from that huge cultural and economic breakthrough that would completely redefine Europe and the contours of its geography. The influx of gold and trade coming from the Americas enriched the Old Continent and made its nation states aware, at the same time, of the enormous possibilities of that ever-expanding world. That is why September 1992 was a particularly convenient moment for further discoveries, this time in the name of science.
Surrounded by the futuristic architecture of the Universal Exposition and specially that of the World Trade Centre, the contestants suddenly found themselves in a sort of turning point. The Fourth Edition of the EU Contest would become a standpoint from which Seville has significantly improved its scientific and research potential. Right after the Expo 92, there was a complete recycling of its premises in order to establish a technological park: Seville-Technopolis.
Scientific tradition in Seville is well represented by the outstanding figure of Avenzoar (1091-1161). Some have considered him the greatest among the Muslim physicians of the Middle Ages. He spent most of his life in Seville focusing on medical research and producing many original and long-lasting contributions. Avenzoar was in favour of thorough observation and experimentation in medicine; he has been described as proficient in the art of dissecting dead human bodies.
Avenzoar was a pioneer in testing different medicines on animals before administering them to humans, as well as in describing in detail scabies, itch mites and other parasites. Besides, he was the first to give a full description of the operation of tracheotomy, which he performed successfully feeding through the gullet. Several of his medical manuscripts were translated into Latin and Hebrew, being in great demand all over Europe until the late 18th Century.
Regarding the field of chemistry, and again during the Muslim domination in Middle Age Spain, there was a scholar in Seville who published influential treatises on procedures for purification of chemical compounds; unfortunately we do not know his name.
A past of physicians and chemists: the fact that the first Academy of Medicine in Europe was founded in Sevilla in the late 17th Century somewhat comes as no surprise .


PRIZE WINNERS

FIRST PRIZES

SECOND PRIZES

TRAVEL AWARDS TO THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FAIR IN MISSISSIPI 1993

JURY MEMBERS

Galo Ramírez
Alfred Frennet
Thor Bak
Werner Rathmayer
Christos Louis
Ernesto Carmona Guzmán
Mireille Polvé
Dervilla Donnelly
Fiorella Padoa Schioppa
Joseph H. G. Lahr
Maurits Geerlings
Peter Swinnerton-Dyer
Augusto Barroso
Alfred McLaren