Jan Eeckhout, an ICREA research professor at the UPF Department of Economics and Business, also linked to the Barcelona School of Economics (BSE), and Núria López-Bigas, a part-time professor at the UPF Department of Medicine and Life Sciences (MELIS) and ICREA researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Biomedical Research (IRB), have received the Jaume I award today, November 25, in its categories of Economics and Biomedical Research, respectively.

The award ceremony for the 37th edition of the awards, which consist of seven categories, took place at the Llotja de Valencia, presided over by King Felipe VI,  with the presence of various authorities, members of the scientific and business communities, and also the jury which this year involved a hundred people including twenty Nobel laureates. These awards recognize the most important Spanish talent in the fields of science, technology and entrepreneurship, and are each endowed with 100,000 euros.

Jan Eeckhout, Jaume I Award for Economics

In the words of Javier Quesada, executive president of the Fundació Valenciana Premis Rei Jaume I and jury spokesperson, Jan Eeckhout stands out especially for his work analysing the effects of large business concentrations in the field of economics. He also mentioned “his important contributions to a wide range of fields. They include research theory, economic growth, game theory, and empirical industrial organization”.

The jury stressed that his most influential work, with several co-authors, deals with measuring market power. The main conclusion of his research is that “since 1980, business concentration has increased worldwide, in virtually all sectors and industries, and has had profound implications for macroeconomics and inequality”.

Jan Eeckhout: “The award is in recognition of the problem of the effect of monopolies on the economy, both in terms of the dynamism and entrepreneurship of companies and the labour market”

In the words of Jan Eeckhout, the Jaume I Award “is in recognition of the problem of the effect of monopolies on the economy, both in terms of the dynamism and entrepreneurship of companies and the labour market”. The ICREA-UPF researcher adds: “My research is just a small grain of rice, within the work of the entire team and the entire research community at UPF and around the world. A great many people make significant contributions. I’ve been lucky enough to be recognized, but it’s the work of a lot of people. I am really excited and eager to continue investigating the economic problems of our society”.

Núria López-Bigas, Jaume I Award for Biomedical Research

Núria López-Bigas, an expert in the field of computational genomics, has been granted the Rei Jaume I Award for Biomedical Research “for her innovative research on the origin and evolution of cancer mutations and the development of tools for their study”. López Bigas said that the award “comes in recognition of the work of the entire research group. These are very beautiful things that happen to you in life and that fill you with pride”.

Núria López-Bigas’ research seeks to understand what happens in these early stages before the tumour develops in order to improve prevention

López-Bigas’ research seeks to understand what happens in these early stages before the tumour develops in order to improve prevention. Her study does not focus on tumours of genetic origin but on those that develop in the human body over time. That is, it analyses the evolution of mutations in healthy tissues.

An expert on the relationship between market power and macroeconomics

Jan Eeckhout initially studied at the Catholic University of Leuven and completed his training at the University of Manchester, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics (LSE) with a thesis on the working world.

Prior to becoming an ICREA research professor at the UPF Department of Economics and Business and at the BSE in 2008, he enjoyed a lengthy career at other institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, University College London and Princeton University, among others.

He is the author of the book The profit paradox, in which he analyses how this concentration of large companies with higher profits has not brought about an increase in workers’ wages in recent decades.

During this career, he has conducted research and contributed to numerous publications in the field of macroeconomics, with special attention to the labour market. He fundamentally addresses the macroeconomic implications of market power as well as the economics of the labour market and cities.

Studying cancer from a genomic perspective

Núria López-Bigas holds a PhD from the University of Barcelona (UB) in the molecular genetics of deafness. She transitioned to bioinformatics during her postdoc at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI).

In 2006, she inaugurated her laboratory at the UPF’s MELIS (then the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences) and, in 2016, she moved it to the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB Barcelona) where she is currently an ICREA research professor, leading the Biomedical Genomics Lab.

At UPF, she continues to work as a part-time professor at MELIS, where she teaches on the master’s degree in Bioinformatics for Health Sciences, within which she coordinates the subject “Elements of Biocomputing”.

Her areas of expertise are molecular biology, medical genetics, cancer genomics, computational biology, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics. Her research focuses on the study of cancer from a genomic perspective: she is especially interested in identifying mutations, genes and cancer-driving pathways in different types of tumours and in the study of their potential as therapeutic targets.

She has published more than 150 scientific articles and in 2024 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Science of Spain. She has also been involved with the European Institute of Bioinformatics in Hinxton, United Kingdom, and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), in Barcelona.