News | Passion for Knowledge | 2

Passion for Knowledge 2023 is launched

The Lehendakari (President of the Basque Government) Iñigo Urkullu presided over the opening ceremony of the festival, a celebration of knowledge; he was joined by Eneko Goia, Mayor of Donostia-San Sebastian, Eider Mendoza, Head of the Charter Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, and Pedro Miguel Etxenike, President of the DIPC. With the participation of seven Nobel Laureates and major figures in science, this international festival will be a week-long meeting point between science and the general public.

The inauguration began with a performance by the dance company Kukai Dantza. After the ceremony, Özlem Türeci, 2021 Princess of Asturias Award winner and key figure in the race for a vaccine to combat Covid-19, gave a lecture entitled "Molecular communication with the immune system". After that, Donna Strickland, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for her pioneering research in the field of lasers, spoke about the generation of ultra- short, high-intensity optical pulses. Today's program concluded with the Ikerbasque awards for researchers Sara Barja, Ainhoa Magrach and Alicia Alonso.