Pro Academia awarded its 2017 prize to a physicist from Colombia in recognition of his interdisciplinary focus.
Eduardo Posada Flórez of Bogotá received the prize for interdisciplinary academic exchange that brought together scientists, scholars, researchers, and politicians. He specializes in low-temperature physics and superconductivity.
Posada helped create an academic, logistical, and political infrastructure in Colombia and helped to enact the country's Science and Technology Act of 1990.
The Pro Academia Prize is bestowed on one or several academic groups that have worked together and succeeded in reaching their goals over a period of at least eight years, thus creating "nurseries" of scientific eminence. The prize was established by the Round Table Foundation and awarded for the first time in 2013.
Candidates can be nominated by the members of the Round Table Foundation board or the advisory committee. Direct applications are not accepted.