The researcher and virologist Margarita del Val will inaugurate the cultural program of the FCM

The César Manrique Foundation (FCM) inaugurates its 2026 cultural program next Friday, March 27, with a conference given by Margarita del Val, scientific researcher, virologist, and immunologist of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Under the title Are we more prepared for future epidemics?, the presentation will take place at 7:30 p.m., in the José Saramago hall (La Plazuela, Arrecife), and will be broadcast live through the FCM's website and YouTube channel.

Margarita del Val will explain why, in her opinion, we will suffer more and more epidemics in the future. Among the reasons, the scientific communicator highlights several aspects such as the growing population density associated with necessary urban development; the increasing number of human contacts due to tourism, business, and migrations; an increase in the contact and movement of animals; as well as the negative contribution of the warming of temperate zones of the planet. “From covid-19 we have not only learned that epidemics must be tackled before they become global, but also that all these interactions must be thoroughly investigated to act even earlier on their most primary causes,” she points out.

Margarita del Val's inaugural conference is included within the FCM's reflection space Frontiers and directions of progress . A forum aimed at reviewing the idea of progress contemplated from multidisciplinary perspectives, and which has already featured the presence, among others, of Ramón Margalef, José Manuel Naredo, Federico Aguilera Klink, Fernando Savater, Jorge Riechmann, Ulrich Beck, Marc Augé, Susan George, Daniel Innerarity, Gloria Poyatos, Íñigo Losada, Remedios Zafra, Óscar Carpintero, Antonio Valero or, recently, Josep María Esquirol.

Margarita del Val is a researcher, virologist, and immunologist at the CSIC at the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center in Madrid. She coordinates more than 170 research groups in the CSIC's Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform Global Health, to face the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent analogous challenges. Likewise, she investigates the immune response to viral infections and immune memory, that is, basic aspects of how vaccines work.

She has researched in Germany and at the Carlos III Health Institute, and has carried out stays in the United States and Canada. She is Doctor honoris causa by the Miguel Hernández University of Elche. She has represented Spain at the European Medicines Agency, and is a member of two scientific Academies and the Expert Advisory Committee on Vaccines of the Community of Madrid. She contributes to the communication of scientific knowledge to society.