It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, April 01, 2026
Influence of antibiotic use on mental health during pregnancy
Research points to association between antibiotic exposure and maternal psychological distress in early-to mid-pregnancy
Analysis of 94,490 pregnant women enrolled in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study shows that antibiotic use before and during pregnancy was associated with a higher likelihood of psychological distress during early- to mid-pregnancy.
Credit: Prof. Kenta Matsumura from the University of Toyama, Japan
Perinatal depression, which occurs during pregnancy or in the period after childbirth, is one of the most common mental health conditions experienced by women. The condition affects the well-being of the mother during both pregnancy and after childbirth, as well as the development of the child.
Multiple factors influence maternal mental health and recently, emerging evidence suggests an association between antibiotic use and maternal mental health. The study published in Volume 26 of the journal BMC Public Health on January 10, 2026, was conducted by Collaborative Researcher Kenta Matsumura, formerly a Junior Associate Professor at the Department of Public Health, University of Toyama, Japan, and currently a Professor at Aomori University of Health and Welfare, Japan, along with Dr. Hidekuni Inadera at the Toyama Unit Center of the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS), University of Toyama.
“While there are situations in which antibiotics are essential, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria due to the inappropriate use of antibiotics has become a significant concern. We wanted to understand how antibiotic use is associated with psychological distress among pregnant women,” shares Prof. Matsumura, as the inspiration behind the study.
To examine the relation between antibiotic use and psychological distress, the researchers analyzed data from 94,490 pregnant women enrolled in JECS, an ongoing nationwide birth cohort study designed to investigate how environmental factors are associated with children's health and development. Most women enrolled in the study were at around 12 weeks of pregnancy, and follow-up assessments were conducted when they were about 15 weeks pregnant.
Information on the participant’s antibiotic use was collected for the year before early pregnancy. This period covered two stages: from before conception until pregnancy recognition, and from pregnancy recognition until enrollment in the study. Participants were then categorized into three groups: those who did not use antibiotics, those who used antibiotics during either one of the two periods, and those who used antibiotics during both periods.
The researchers evaluated participants' psychological distress using the Japanese version of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), a six-item self-reported questionnaire in which participants answer six questions about their mental state.
The researchers then used the group that did not take antibiotics as the reference group to estimate the association between antibiotic use and psychological distress in the other two groups. They calculated adjusted odds ratio, a statistical measure used to estimate the strength of an association between two variables, in this case, antibiotic use and psychological distress.
"We found that antibiotic use before and during pregnancy was associated with psychological distress in early- to mid-pregnancy, and that this association showed a stepwise pattern in a nationwide dataset of approximately 94,000 participants," says Prof. Matsumura.
After accounting for potential factors that could influence both antibiotic use and psychological distress, such as maternal age, pre-pregnancy body mass index, education level, income, smoking status, alcohol use, marital status, and psychiatric history, the analysis showed that compared with no antibiotic use, the adjusted odds ratios for moderate psychological distress (K6 score of 5 to 12) were 1.12 for use during either period and 1.22 for use during both periods. For severe psychological distress (K6 score greater than 13), the adjusted odds ratios were 1.07 and 1.50, respectively.
The higher odds ratios observed with greater antibiotic exposure suggest that the likelihood of psychological distress during early- to mid-pregnancy was higher among participants who reported antibiotic use during more periods.
One possible explanation for these findings involves the gut microbiota, which can be altered by antibiotics. Changes in gut microbiota have been observed in various conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and inflammation, and such changes have also been examined in relation to psychiatric conditions.
The researchers emphasize that these findings do not suggest avoiding antibiotics when they are medically necessary. Instead, the findings may contribute to ongoing discussions about appropriate antibiotic use and efforts to reduce unnecessary prescriptions.
"This study may encourage women who are planning pregnancy or in early pregnancy to become more aware of the appropriate use of antibiotics. Antibiotics are essential when medically necessary; however, increasing awareness about avoiding unnecessary prescriptions—such as for common colds—may also be relevant from a maternal mental health perspective," concludes Prof. Matsumura.
About University of Toyama, Japan University of Toyama is a leading national university located in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, with campuses in Toyama City and Takaoka City. Formed in 2005 through the integration of three former national institutions, the university brings together a broad spectrum of disciplines across its 9 undergraduate schools, 8 graduate schools, and a range of specialized institutes. With more than 9,000 students, including a growing international cohort, the university is dedicated to high-quality education, cutting-edge research, and meaningful social contribution. Guided by the mission to cultivate individuals with creativity, ethical awareness, and a strong sense of purpose, the University of Toyama fosters learning that integrates the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and life sciences. The university emphasizes a global standard of education while remaining deeply engaged with the local community. The university also serves as a Regional Center for the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS), contributing to large-scale national research on children’s health and development.
About Professor Kenta Matsumura from the University of Toyama, Japan Dr. Kenta Matsumura received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Human Sciences from Hokkaido University in 2004 and 2007, respectively. He joined the University of Toyama in 2018 as a Junior Assistant Professor. He is currently a Professor at Aomori University of Health and Welfare. Dr. Matsumura specializes in epidemiology, public health, mental health, nutritional psychiatry, and biological psychology and has published over 140 papers on these topics.
Funding information The JECS was funded by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan.
Periconceptional antibiotic use and early- to mid-pregnancy psychological distress in a nationwide birth cohort: cross-sectional analysis from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study
Survey: Americans strongly support autism research — but most don’t know brain donation is needed to advance it
Published during April’s Autism Acceptance Month, a new Autism BrainNet survey shows 70% haven’t even heard of brain donation
April 1, 2026 – Autism BrainNet today released new survey findings revealing a significant disconnect between Americans’ strong support of autism research and their limited understanding of the role postmortem brain donation plays in advancing it. The survey found that 70 percent of respondents had never heard of brain donation, despite 92 percent agreeing that analysis of the autistic brain is extremely or very important to advance research.
The findings highlight a sharp contrast with organ donation as more than 80 percent of respondents are familiar with organ donation and more than half are registered organ donors. However, only 15 percent of respondents know that brain donation is not included when you sign up for organ donation. It is a separate process.
“For researchers who study autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions, postmortem brain tissue is a critical scientific resource that cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence, imaging technologies, or even animal experiments,” explained David G. Amaral, Ph.D., Scientific Director of Autism BrainNet and UC Davis Distinguished Professor. “At Autism BrainNet, our goals are to facilitate the highest quality autism research, provide accurate information about brain donation to individuals and families, and increase comfort with planning for donation before a time of bereavement.”
Survey Highlights Misunderstandings About Brain Donation
The survey, conducted Feb 26-Mar. 2, 2026 with 1,007 respondents, reveals widespread confusion about how brain donation works and who is eligible. For example, less than half of respondents know that postmortem brain donation needs to take place hours after death, not days or weeks after death, and not when a person is alive, as a small percentage indicated. Misunderstandings about eligibility are also common as nearly one‑third of respondents incorrectly believe certain medical or neurological conditions, specifically autism or epilepsy, disqualify someone from donating, despite their high value to researchers who need a heterogeneous selection of brains to study these conditions.
“My younger, autistic brother Ed led a rich and happy life, surrounded by friends and family who adored him and appreciated his many interests and his big, loving character,” said Kathy Stein, who donated her brother’s brain to Autism BrainNet. “When he passed, I donated his brain because it is a positive way to acknowledge what a wonderful person he was and to extend his legacy. Imagine how much we can learn about the biological causes of autism and related neurodegenerative disorders through his contribution.”
Autism BrainNet to Host Ask Me Anything Session on Reddit
During Autism Acceptance Month, Autism BrainNet will work to improve understanding of brain donation by hosting an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit on April 29 from 12-2pm ET. Available to answer questions about what brain donation is, how someone can become a donor, the process for brain donation, and more will be Dr. David Amaral, alongside Dr. Alycia Halladay, Chief Science Officer of the Autism Science Foundation.
Dr. Amaral added, “Brain donation is for research purposes only, not for transplantation. While brain donation is not included in organ donor registries, brain donors can also be organ and tissue donors, and brain donation is not limited by most medical conditions. In fact, we most need postmortem brains from autistic people and those with related neurodevelopmental conditions to advance research. That’s why we encourage autistic adults, families, and care partners to learn more about Autism BrainNet.”
Autism BrainNet accepts donations from people with a diagnosis of autism, even when other diagnoses are present, from people with a genetic diagnosis associated with autism, whether or not they have a diagnosis of autism, and from nonautistic people. To preserve the scientific value of the brain tissue, a donation should be received within 48 hours after death, though donation may be possible later. There is no cost to families and all logistics are handled by Autism BrainNet. Brain donation does not impact any kind of funeral arrangements preferred by families.
About Autism BrainNet
Autism BrainNet, funded by the Simons Foundation and Simons Foundation International, is the bridge between the autism community and the worldwide community of scientists who are dedicated to a greater understanding of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. Autism BrainNet facilitates the collection, processing, storage and distribution of postmortem brain donations to advance autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders research worldwide. To learn more about brain donation and Autism BrainNet, please visit our website at AutismBrainNet.org or call the 24/7 hotline at 1-877-333-0999.
Media Contact:
Jessica Daitch
917-816-6712
jessica@jldcommunications.com
A new crab is settling in the Mediterranean: Early evidence of establishment of a Lessepsian species in the Ionian Sea
New research reveals the rapid expansion of the portunid crab, Gonioinfradens giardi, highlighting ongoing biological changes in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Mediterranean Sea is undergoing rapid ecological transformations driven by climate change and human-mediated species introductions. Among the most striking processes is the increasing arrival and establishment of non-indigenous species entering through the Suez Canal, a phenomenon known as Lessepsian migration.
A new study published in Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria documents the rapid expansion of the Indo-Pacific crab Gonioinfradens giardi in the Ionian Sea, off the coast of Italy. Following the first confirmed Italian record - a single specimen collected at Portopalo di Capo Passero in November 2025 - researchers documented 11 additional individuals between November 2025 and January 2026, providing early but compelling evidence that the species has moved beyond sporadic occurrence and may already be establishing stable populations in the region.
Our findings suggest that Gonioinfradens giardi is transitioning from occasional records to a more consistent presence in the central Mediterranean. This raises important questions about its potential ecological role and interactions with native species.
- explains Francesco Tiralongo, lead author of the study.
To reconstruct the current distribution of the species, the newly collected data integrates recent records with field observations obtained through a collaboration with local fishers utilizing standard artisanal fishing gears. The haul of a dozen individuals within a two-month period indicates that environmental conditions are becoming more favorable for its persistence. Furthermore, these captures mark the westernmost presence of the species in the Mediterranean Sea to date.
“The rapid emergence of this species highlights how dynamic and responsive Mediterranean ecosystems are to ongoing environmental changes,” adds Alberto Felici, co-author of the study. “Documenting these early phases of establishment is crucial for understanding future ecological scenarios and supporting informed management decisions.”
The establishment of non-indigenous crustaceans may have cascading effects on local ecosystems, including competition with native species and potential implications for fisheries. While the long-term impacts of G. giardi remain uncertain, its rapid spread reflects broader changes already underway in Mediterranean marine biodiversity.
This case adds to a growing list of species reshaping Mediterranean ecosystems. Continuous monitoring, including contributions from fishers and citizen scientists, will be essential to track these dynamics and support adaptive management strategies.
- Tiralongo adds.
The study contributes to the expanding body of evidence that the Mediterranean Sea is becoming a hotspot for biological invasions, emphasizing the need for coordinated research and monitoring efforts at regional and basin-wide scales.
Original source:
Tiralongo F, Leotta P, Accolla H, Tibullo D, Felici A (2026) Rapid expansion of a Lessepsian migrant crab, Gonioinfradens giardi (Crustacea, Brachyura, Portunidae), in the Ionian Sea: New records and early evidence of establishment. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 56: 145-149. https://doi.org/10.3897/aiep.56.185183
Specimen of Gonioinfradens giardi collected along the Ionian coast of Sicily on 23 December 2025, delivered by local fishers and preserved in the zoological collection of the Ente Fauna Marina Mediterranea
Distribution map of Gonioinfradens giardi; new records along the Ionian coast of Sicily are shown in yellow (circles), while the red circle indicates the first published record.
Rapid expansion of a Lessepsian migrant crab, Gonioinfradens giardi (Crustacea, Brachyura, Portunidae), in the Ionian Sea: New records and early evidence of establishment
Article Publication Date
31-Mar-2026
The Frontiers of Knowledge Award goes to Carl Wunsch for his foundational contributions to pioneering studies that revealed the impact of global warming on the world’s oceans
In the Climate Change and Environmental Sciences category
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change and Environmental Sciences category has gone in this 18th edition to Carl Wunsch (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for his foundational contributions to studies that revealed the impact of global warming on the world’s oceans.
The awardee researcher “had the early insight that the ocean plays a central role in regulating Earth’s climate,” reads the Frontiers citation. Guided by this insight, he developed the innovative methods that allow scientists to precisely quantify the state of the ocean under a changing climate, and, in doing so, “demonstrated the need for a global ocean observing system,” able to integrate observations of a diverse nature, made from space or from inside the ocean.
Wunsch himself would lead pioneering scientific projects aimed at measuring and analyzing the effects of global warming using newly available technologies like satellite images taken from space. His work, as such, “has been instrumental in the design of ongoing global ocean observation programs, which underpin current estimates of an alarming increase in ocean heat content in response to increasing greenhouse gases.”
His approach, said the committee, “emphasizes the importance of international cooperation to solve global problems,” as instantiated by the various international projects he himself instigated and led. It also “epitomizes the power of collaborative science to answer fundamental questions on the future trajectory of the climate system, and its consequences for life on the planet.”
“Before Professor Wunsch’s work, there wasn’t any kind of coherent global ocean observation system,” explains committee secretary Carlos Duarte, holder of the Tarek Ahmed Juffali Research Chair in Red Sea Ecology at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia). “Thanks to analytical methods of his devising and the global-scale oceanographic observation system he pioneered, we have been able to obtain predictions of changes in ocean dynamics, the rate of ice melt in the polar oceans, sea-level rise, and how the ocean’s heat content is changing and increasing – with current estimates that are truly alarming as to the energy accumulated, which is driving extreme events like the torrential rains that have repeatedly hit the Iberian Peninsula.”
“The ocean is one of the most important components of the Earth’s climate system, but it is very difficult to know what is going on beneath its surface. What Prof. Wunsch accomplished was to devise measurement systems, very ingenious ones, that give us a better understanding of how the ocean circulation works and how it takes up heat in the climate system,” adds fellow committee member Kerry Emanuel, Cecil & Ida Green Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT. “His contributions have been indispensable in quantifying the increases in ocean temperature and accumulation of thermal energy linked to greenhouse gas emissions, a problem that will manifest in rising sea levels and other problems such as increased incidence of heat waves, drought, wildfires and floods.”
The birth of a “radically different” strategy for studying the ocean
Carl Wunsch initially studied mathematics, earning a degree in the subject at MIT in 1962, but before long found himself increasingly drawn to ocean exploration. This change of heart owed partly to the influence of Henry Stommel, a charismatic MIT faculty member and an authority in the physical oceanography field who would end up supervising his PhD thesis, and partly to the promise of adventure held out by the discipline, far from offices and lecture halls: “One of the great attractions of physical oceanography at the time is that you got to go to sea on ships, which was a wonderful change from sitting in front of a computer or a pad of paper,” remarked the new laureate in an interview shortly after hearing of the award.
At that point in his studies, Wunsch was spending long months carrying out measurements from onboard research vessels; a fairly rudimentary way of working that had two major drawbacks: its expense and its slowness. “It costs a lot of money to take 30 to 50 people to sea for weeks at a time, and it’s also a very lengthy process. This had led to a misconception about how the ocean works, because the picture built up was of this very slowly changing, almost kind of geological structure.”
All this changed, however, in the 1970s, when technological advances – particularly space-based satellite observations and improvements in data processing capabilities – began to transform our image of the ocean: “We learned, as some had long suspected, that the ocean was turbulent like the atmosphere.” It was then that Wunsch came to realize, ever more clearly, that oceanography “had a serious observational problem” – it was simply not possible to keep ships in one place for long enough to track the constant changes taking place in the oceanic climate.
This dearth of observations and reliable data in his chosen field was brought home to him forcibly when he had the chance to participate as co-author in the pioneering 1979 study organized by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences on the global impact of climate change: “It was the first attempt to conduct a serious study of the effects of climate change caused by rising CO₂ levels, and it became clear that we oceanographers had very little to contribute. When asked how much of the carbon that was going into the atmosphere would go into the ocean or the amount of heat that would end up there, the truth was that we simply didn’t know because we lacked the observational basis.”
Wunsch decided there and then that oceanography required “a radically different approach.” To properly assess the state of the oceans and the impacts of climate change on the marine environment, what was needed was a new observation system and analytical methodology that would allow for the calculation, on a planetary scale, of how ocean heat content and thermal energy were changing under global warming.
His response was to pour his energies into instigating a series of major international projects to collect ocean data from around the globe, while developing mathematical and analytical tools that would support the use of these observations to verify the temperature increase and accumulation of heat caused by global warming.
Pioneering missions that revolutionized oceanographic observation
Firstly, in 1990, Wunsch led the organization of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, WOCE), conceived as an observation system that would offer a comprehensive map of heat flux linked to ocean circulation and its variability in the context of climate change, with a particular focus on gathering data from the Southern Ocean, which had only been sparsely sampled at that time.
The data collected by WOCE – a 12-year project working with readings from satellites and buoys equipped with sensors to measure temperature, salinity, and other key parameters – enabled better calibrated climate models, laying the groundwork for a global understanding of ocean circulation, while spurring development of new tools and approaches for sampling at sub-oceanic levels.
“In the early 1980s, the meteorological community was running what became known as the World Climate Research Programme, an international program whose goal was to improve weather forecasting,” Wunsch relates. “It was clear that, to improve the prediction of climate, we first had to understand it, and there were many meteorologists who recognized that, to do so, we had to understand the ocean.” With this goal in mind, he proposed a mission that had until lately seemed impossible: the time had come to observe the oceans at a global scale, using precision instruments.
Technology had by then advanced enough to bring the dream within reach: “Before that, I would have been laughed out of the room,” he admits, thinking back to the days when “ships took a month to cross the Atlantic and you couldn’t cross the Pacific without stopping over at some port.” Now, however, these limitations could increasingly be overcome. Wunsch was determined to expand the scope of oceanographic research, with his sights set on what would become known as satellite altimetry.
“It had been known for 80 years that when the ocean flowed, the surface tilted so that if the flow was clockwise, as it is in the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic, there would be a high on the right as the fluid went around it, the same way as in the atmosphere,” the oceanographer explains.
In theory, then, it was already known that much of the near-surface ocean flow manifests as undulations and fluctuations in sea surface height, but that their magnitude was confined to a range of tens of centimeters – so small a scale that for many of Wunsch’s scientific colleagues “it was not conceivable that one could measure it.”
Working closely with engineers, he was able to get past this restrictive view: “With the right satellite and radar, we believed, we could measure the highs and lows of the sea surface to an accuracy of a few centimeters.”
The proof would come in 1992 with the launch of the high-precision altimeter built under the TOPEX/Poseidon project, in which Wunsch had played a leading role. A Franco-American mission, its purpose was to make continuous measurements of the dynamic topography of the surface of the world ocean using space-based altimetric radars.
“TOPEX-Poseidon made it possible to calculate changes in the ocean’s heat content based on changes in its height, since a warmer ocean is less dense so occupies a larger volume for the same mass,” explains Carlos Duarte, referring to the project’s application in tracking variations in heat.
Originally designed to run for three years, the mission was so successful that it would go on feeding data to the scientific community for a further ten years. This extended timeframe allowed Wunsch and his colleagues to monitor the effects of ocean currents on climate change and produce the first global map of seasonal changes in ocean currents.
From 1998 until today, Wunsch’s scientific vision and methodological insights found their most notable application in the Argo project, which combines satellite altimetry with measurements taken by a global fleet of robotic probes made up of almost 4,000 free-drifting floats that take continuous, simultaneous measurements of ocean temperature, salinity and currents down to a depth of 2,000 meters. The data they collect is transmitted via satellite, and then distributed to generate accurate estimates of the global increase in ocean temperature.
High levels of risk due to sea-level rise and extreme weather events
For Wunsch, the data collected in recent decades through the international oceanographic observation projects drawing on his work offer clear and troubling insights into the risk posed by the impacts of global warming on our oceans.
“We know that sea level is rising on the global average,” he relates, “and in some places more rapidly than others.” What remains to be determined is whether the melting process will accelerate over the next 50 years, which would bring “a catastrophic change,” or whether it will happen more gradually over 1,000 years, “allowing people to adjust in some way.” In any case, there is no doubting the severity of the threat.
Another clear warning that emerges from oceanographic observations is that the heat accumulating in the world’s oceans is driving up the risk of extreme weather events, like heat waves, floods and torrential rains: “What is going on in the climate system is that as it heats up, it becomes more energetic. It’s like a pendulum swinging back and forth, where you expect to see extremes. But if you add more energy to the pendulum, these extremes get bigger. The more energetic the ocean is, the more extreme events you can expect.”
Faced with a challenge of this magnitude, Wunsch emphasizes the importance of global scientific cooperation among countries, which he has championed throughout his career, and considers “absolutely essential” to confront global warming: ”Climate is a global phenomenon, and there’s no way of understanding what’s changing and what could change for better or worse without international cooperation.”
Laureate bio notes
Carl Wunsch (Brooklyn, New York, United States, 1941) earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics (1962) and a PhD in geophysics (1966) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His academic and research career has largely been spent at this institution, where he began as a professor of Oceanography in 1967, served as chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences from 1977 to 1981, and is now Cecil & Ida Green Professor Emeritus of Physical Oceanography. Wunsch is also an Associate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, having worked there in a visiting capacity for the previous ten years. He has also held visiting positions at the universities of Washington and Princeton, the California Institute of Technology, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and, in France, the Space Geodesy Research Group (GRGS), a public research consortium. Author or co-author of approximately 300 published papers and five books, he has chaired the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences and NASA’s Altimetry Science Working Group (TOPEX), as well as the International Steering Group of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) under the World Climate Research Programme.
Climate Change and Environmental Sciences committee and evaluation support panel
The committee in this category was chaired by Bjorn Stevens, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (Germany), with Carlos Duarte, holder of the Tarek Ahmed Juffali Research Chair in Red Sea Ecology at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia) and Frontiers of Knowledge laureate in Climate Change and Environmental Sciences, acting as secretary.
About the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards
The BBVA Foundation centers its activity on the promotion of world-class scientific research and cultural creation, and its transmission to society, along with the recognition of talent through families of awards organized alone or in conjunction with scientific societies and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) .
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, funded with 400,000 euros in each of their eight categories, recognize and reward contributions of singular impact in basic sciences, biomedicine, environmental sciences and climate change, social sciences, economics, the humanities and music. The goal of the awards, established in 2008, is to celebrate and promote the value of knowledge as a global public good, the best tool at our command to confront the defining challenges of our time and expand individual worldviews. Their eight categories are congruent with the knowledge map of the 21st century.
A total of 34 Frontiers of Knowledge laureates in the 17 editions held to date have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
The BBVA Foundation is partnered in these awards by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the country’s premier public research organization. CSIC appoints evaluation support panels made up of leading experts in the corresponding knowledge area, who are charged with undertaking an initial assessment of candidates and drawing up a reasoned shortlist for the consideration of the award committees. CSIC is also responsible for designating each committee’s chair across the eight prize categories and participates in the selection of remaining members, helping to ensure objectivity in the recognition of those who have achieved particularly significant advances in science and in music. The presidency of CSIC also has a prominent role in the awards ceremony held each year in Bilbao, the permanent home of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards.
