The Board of Trustees at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) has awarded the prizes in the twelfth edition of the Board of Trustees Awards in all of its categories. The ceremony was held in the Auditorium of the Rectorado & Consejo Social building on the Elche Campus.

The Students Award went to Alejandro Moltó Borreguero, a fine arts undergraduate, and to Aitana García Cantos, a graduate of journalism. This award recognizes student development in addition to valuing academic achievements, experience, professional skills, and the European dimensions of their accomplishments. The Research Award, Research Groups category, was given to Calité Research, which focuses its activities on defining objectives, commitments to quality, and their assessment, as well as fostering continuous improvement in work processes and outcomes. Its principal investigator is Virtudes Pérez Jover. In this award’s Young Researchers category, the recipient was associate professor Alfonso Ortega Giménez, from the Department of Legal Science, who will receive 2,000 euros to assist with costs related to his lines of research.

The Teaching Excellence Award was given to both associate professor María Asunción Amorós Marco, from the Department of Applied Biology, and also to professor Pere Berbel Navarro, from the Histology and Anatomy Department. Panama Jack, S.A. received the Business and Institutions Award. This award recognizes the consolidated development of this Elche company, a reference in the international footwear market and very active in the sphere of social responsibility, as well as a constant collaborator with this university.

The Innovation Actions in Management Award, directed at university services and administrative units, was given this year to the UMH Service of Quality for its “Week of Innovation in University Management” initiative, whose objective is to foster innovative spirit in university staff and who propose new ideas that can be put into operation and result in providing better services.

Santiago Sanz Quinto, a professional wheelchair athlete, received the Best University Athlete award for his outstanding national and international achievements. He has been victorious 90 times in international racing competitions and won 17 medals with the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation. Santiago holds a UMH bachelor’s degree in Sports Science, a UMH master’s degree in Sport Performance and Health, and is currently working on his PhD in the UMH Doctoral Program in Sports and Health.

As for the UMH Chair Award, the prize in the Business and Patronage Chair category went to the UMH Chair of Allergies and Clinical Immunology, directed by Francisco Javier Fernández Sánchez, and funded by the Spanish Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Alk-Abello, S.A.; BIAL-Industrial Farmacéutica, S.A.; Diater Laboratorios, S.A.; and Phadia Spain, S.L. Moreover, in the UMH Institutional Chair category, which recognizes achievements by persons or entities in each one of their chairs, the winners included the editor and scholar of the work on Miguel Hernández, José María Gutiérrez de la Torre, by the Miguel Hernández Chair; Jesús Rueda Cuenca, PhD and investigator, by the Pedro Ibarra Chair; the stagehands of the Misteri d´Elx, by the Misteri d’Elx Chair; palm entrepreneur Francisco Serrano Valero, by the Palmeral d’Elx Chair;  the Real Orden de la Dama d’Elx, by the Dama d’Elx Chair; Toñi Pastor, creative director of the Cuplé footwear company, by the Saint Crispín Chair of Shoemakers; and lastly, the UMH volunteers in Rwanda, by the UMH Headquarters in Rwanda Chair.

The Social Relevance Award went to Juan Garrigós, president of the Grupo Radio Elche, a pioneering broadcaster founded in Elche in 1934 and a genuine institution among radio broadcasting in this city. Finally, the UMH Board of Trustees presented the Non-Profit Entity Award to the Association of Women Affected by Breast Cancer of Elche and the Region (AMACMEC), which since 1998 has been providing assistance and information during the process and treatment of breast cancer in order to achieve physical, psychological, and social well-being for those affected.