Juan Manuel García Ruiz

Invitado de Honor

He is an Ikerbasque Professor at the Donostia International Physics Center (San Sebastián), where he runs the “Origins of Life” laboratory, and an honorary Research Professor at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas in Granada, where he founded the Crystallographic Studies Laboratory. He has conducted studies on giant crystals, the origin of life and the detection of primitive life in the universe as part of the European Research Council (ERC) projects “Prometheus” and “Protos.”

He is a researcher who is committed to promoting science. He has endorsed numerous outreach initiatives, including: the exhibition El poder de los cristales on their impact on science, art and thought (Casa de la Ciencia de Sevilla, 2023-2025); “La cristalización de la danza,” a danced conference with choreographer Vanesa Aibar, on the idea of crystal in dance; El misterio de los cristales gigantes, an award-winning documentary made with Javier Trueba, translated into 6 languages; Simetría fractal en Doñana y su marisma, a book and travelling exhibition with Héctor Garrido; Cristales: un mundo por descubrir, a downloadable exhibition that is shown in schools and universities around the world.

He is the author of the books Descubrir:divertimentos y cavilaciones científicas and Cristales: un mundo por descubrir. Together with German illustrator Till Lukat, he wrote the comic book Algo en el agua, inspired by the ERC-Advanced project “Prometheus.”

He has created the Crystallization in School Contest (12 editions), involving 14,000 students/year, and he is the creator and director of Krystala, a project to disseminate geoscience.

He has organized the conference “Lorca in Babel. Reading Federico García Lorca's Romance sonámbulo in 15 languages".

He is a frequent contributor to El País, National Geographic, Jot Down, El País Semanal, Mercurio, Prometeo, etc.