Professor Carmina Virgili, Gold Medal of the UB, dies

Dr Carmina Virgili and the rector of the UB, Dr Dídac Ramírez.
Dr Carmina Virgili and the rector of the UB, Dr Dídac Ramírez.
Institutional
(24/11/2014)

Dr Carmina Virgili, who received the Gold Medal of the UB in 2011 and was one of the first women to be professor in Spain, died on Friday 21 November. In 2013, Dr Virgili, Emeritus Professor of Stratigraphy from the Complutense University of Madrid, received the Honour Medal of the former institution, where she developed a great part of her teaching career.

Dr Carmina Virgili and the rector of the UB, Dr Dídac Ramírez.
Dr Carmina Virgili and the rector of the UB, Dr Dídac Ramírez.
Institutional
24/11/2014

Dr Carmina Virgili, who received the Gold Medal of the UB in 2011 and was one of the first women to be professor in Spain, died on Friday 21 November. In 2013, Dr Virgili, Emeritus Professor of Stratigraphy from the Complutense University of Madrid, received the Honour Medal of the former institution, where she developed a great part of her teaching career.

Carmina Virgili i Rodón (Barcelona, 1927) got a PhD in Geology from the UB in 1956. Throughout her career, she was lecturer, professor, head of department and dean at several Spanish and French universities. In 1963, she got the chair of Stratigraphy at the University of Oviedo, so she became the first woman to be professor at that University and the third in Spain. Moreover, Virgili led the Spanish Mesozoic Group from 1976 to 1980, and the Pablo Iglesias Foundation from 1977 to 1987. Furthermore, she was member of the Spanish Commission of Cooperation with UNESCO from 1982 to 1996, and she was secretary general of Universities and Research from 1982 to 1985.

In addition, she was senator for Barcelona from 1996 to 2000, and in 2008 she was granted an honorary doctorate from the University of Girona. During her professional career, she received a great number of awards, such as the Leonardo Torres Quevedo Award of the Spanish National Research Council, the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise, the Narcís Monturiol Medal, and the Saint George's Cross. Moreover, she was recognized with the National Order of the French Legion of Honour. She was honorary member of the Spanish Official Association of Professional Geologists, and she published more than one hundred articles and books about stratigraphy, palaeography, scientific methodology and the teaching of geology.

Link to the report “Visions sobre el món de la ciència i la dona” (magazine La Universitat, 2007), in which Dr Carmina Virgili participated.