A lighthouse illuminates in the midst of darkness. A lighthouse provides security against any storm. A sign is always there: radiating light, confidence, serenity. This has been a teacher for us Santiago Grisolia: The illuminating beacon of science in the Valencian Community. The spirit that permeates the renewed humanism of this land with science.
Santiago—he had never let me put the “gift” he deserved—was an optimistic person, a young man who would be a hundred years old in five months. One hundred years of productive life. We were all looking forward to that moment. We got it for sure. Because Professor Grisolía, with her vitality and that permanent glint in her eyes, seemed to defy all the laws of nature.
Our top scientist, Grisolía, has been the fundamental atom that drives Valencian science. The man who was born before penicillin and supported the work of the human genome for UNESCO. A giant between two worlds: yesterday and tomorrow. this President Consell Valencià de Cultura turned out to be such a wise man that, like authentic teachers, he understood that wisdom is nestled in humility. He was such a glorious person to say, “What matters in life is not work, honor, or money, but what you can do for others.”
This generous look shaped the two traits I admired most in him. From the first day I met him forty years ago – and then, President Lerma entrusted me with the Generalitat’s collaboration with Professor Grisolía for the launch of the Rei Jaume I awards – I was impressed by his humanistic vision of science. I admired his overcoming of the limits of knowledge and the enlightened justification of reason. With him, one learned that one did not have to choose between literature and science. Knowledge and reason, the foundations of a free society, have only one side. The opposite is dark. That’s why the teacher was our light: because he always led us towards the light. A passionate beacon who has contributed to some awards that have brought Spanish science closer than it should be in society, economics, and the classroom—and I would say it was his greatest “discovery”. He spearheaded a kind of democratizing revolution in science that went beyond the laboratory, with the dream of Jaume I immediately ours.
This crossover view explains a second civic quality of the teacher: his commitment to society and his defense of institutionalism. Professor Grisolía was a citizen living in the United States for a significant part of her life, where she met President Truman. There he was impregnated with the best values of democracy. Perhaps that is why he understood corporate loyalty as the cornerstone of his contribution to society. Of this loyalty he has always demanded public and private support for science. He was not speaking abstractly. Only fourteen years old, working in a war hospital controlled by the CNT, spoke that perennial boy who knew the transcendence of medicine. The man who was right in his time was speaking: In the current pandemic, the life-and-death line was crossed. in science. And so he wanted more for science. Because he gave more to society, to others. In the war hospital or in this harsh epidemic.
Today is a sad day. It seems incredible: Santiago Grisolía has passed away. We lose our friend, accomplice, famous scientist, who came to the fore with the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific Research. We lose a lot. But the teacher, who is always one step ahead of us, whether on foot or in a wheelchair, had already taken into account that one day he would go. And as a good sage, he left us the lighthouse he built with an eternal light. This is his great legacy: the Rei Jaume I Awards, which distinguish between excellence, effort and talent. this is the science of honor. This affects him more in society. This shows us the horizon: the light to drive the darkness away. This was his last lesson. Thanks professor. Thanks to Santiago.