BIAL Foundation: Maria de Sousa Award

With the goal of honoring the doctor and great researcher Maria de Sousa, contributing to research in the area of Health Sciences, the Portuguese Medical Association and the BIAL Foundation promote, in exclusive partnership, the Maria de Sousa Award, which aims to reward and support up to five young Portuguese scientific researchers, aged 35 or younger, in research projects in the area of Health Sciences, including a mandatory internship at an International Center of Excellence.

Started in 2021, this award aims to reward up to 5 applications, each with a value of €30,000, totaling €150,000. The application period began on January 1 and ends on May 31, 2023.

It is possible to access the page related to the award through the BIAL Foundation's website.

To access the regulations, just click here. (Information available only in Portuguese)

The application form is available through this link.

Who was Maria de Sousa?

Maria Ângela Brito de Sousa GOSE • GCSE • GOIH (Lisbon, October 17, 1939 – Lisbon, April 14, 2020) was a Portuguese scientist, immunologist, writer, and university professor.

She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. She carried out scientific work in England, Scotland, and the United States, having been Assistant Professor at the University of Glasgow (Scotland), where she completed her PhD in Immunology, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Cornell Medical College (New York), and simultaneously, Associate Member and Director of the Laboratory of Cellular Ecology at the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research (SKI), in New York (USA). In 1984, she returned to Portugal to the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar in the city of Porto, initiating that same year the Master's degree in Immunology. In 1987, she became Full Professor of Immunology at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar of the University of Porto.

Throughout her career, Maria de Sousa compiled a highly valuable personal archive, meticulously produced during her activity as a researcher and full professor, which constitutes an inexhaustible source for the history of science and technology. There are more than 60,000 documents, mostly composed of originals by the author, but also by other scientists, correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, and microscope slides.

A true scientific treasure that Maria de Sousa donated, in its entirety, to the Municipality of Cascais and which, together with the archives of the Ricardo Jorge Institute, Reynaldo dos Santos, and Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos, will serve as the starting point for a research center dedicated to the relationships between Science, Culture, and Art, based in the Casa Reynaldo dos Santos and Irene Virote Quilhó dos Santos, in Parede.

In 2014, she published a book, Meu Dito Meu Escrito (Gradiva, ISBN 978-989-616-577-2), about science and scientists, which brings together texts written over the years, presented at conferences, published in magazines and newspapers, as well as notes, dedications, and memories.

The University of Porto awarded her the title of Emeritus Professor in 2010. The "University of Coimbra 2011" Award was granted to her for her work on the immune system.

The University of Porto awarded her the title of Emeritus Professor in 2010. The "University of Coimbra 2011" Award was granted to her for her work on the immune system.

On January 20, 2012, she was made Grand Officer of the Ancient, Most Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, for Scientific, Literary and Artistic Merit, by President Aníbal Cavaco Silva.

On November 18, 2016, she was elevated to Grand Cross of the Ancient, Most Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, for Scientific, Literary and Artistic Merit—one of the highest distinctions for literary, scientific, and artistic merit—which was awarded to her on the occasion of the National Day of Scientific Culture, November 24, 2016, by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

On May 26, 2017, she was granted the University of Lisbon Award for her remarkable contribution to the progress of Science and for raising Portugal’s profile in the world.

In 2020, the Portuguese Medical Association and the BIAL Foundation created, in her honor, the Maria de Sousa Award to recognize projects in the field of health sciences created by young Portuguese scientists.

She was honored on World Portuguese Language Day in 2021, at the launch of the book A Ciência Cura ("Science Heals").

She died on April 14, 2020, a victim of COVID-19, during the global pandemic.

Source: BIAL Foundation and adapted from Wikipedia.