Concepción Llaguno Marchena

Born in Madrid in 1925, she studied Chemical Sciences at the Universidad Central (now known as Universidad Complutense de Madrid) after the war ended. She combined her studies working in the Post Office (mechanization of Bank Services) and teaching private lessons. Her interest in biochemistry and fermentations brought her to enroll in a specialization course led by Dr. José María Garrido, fresh from Manchester. This plus of training allowed her to start specialising on scientific research in 1953 as scholar of Juan de la Cierva Patronato; she did it in a section that belonged to CSIC which was the origin of what would later become the Instituto de Fermentaciones Industriales.

From that moment on, she carried out a fruitful research, mainly in biochemistry, alcoholic and acetic fermentation, oenological microbiology and food biotechnology. She was appointed research professor in 1971, at a time when women who have made it up to then were very few.

In 1979 she was appointed CSIC Deputy General Secretary for scientific affairs, a position she held until 1984. During that time, Concha encouraged some key initiatives inside CSIC, for example that tribunal members for competitive examinations would be chosen at random from a common list of women and men, to be officially separated by female and male researchers of all categories for statistical purposes, to initiate the computerization of all CSIC libraries, who could be accommodated in Residencia de Estudiantes or the creation of a nursery school in the own CSIC departments in order to help young female researchers.

Concha was also secretary at Colegio Oficial de Químicos, where she promoted the creation of a Technical Section of Ethnology of the Chemical National Association. In 1984, she was appointed coordinator of CAICYT a body attached to the Ministry of Education and Science, post she held until 1987. She collaborated in the elaboration of the first I+D National Plan and acted as manager of the National Program of Food Technology, in the Inter-ministerial Commission on Science and Technology (CICYT), commission devoted to scientific research carried out in all ministries, post she held until 1990. In April of that same year, she was appointed director of Instituto Frío (CSIC), a position she held until her retirement in 1984.

Scientific-Technological contributions:

Concha made key contributions in the field of oenological biotechnology area, and specially in aspects relating to alcoholic fermentation and metabolism of “flower yeasts” which give rise to sherry wines and Montilla-Moriles. She was a member of the team who, in 1961, was awarded with Juan de la Cierva Prize for her contributions on yeasts. She deepened the application of fermentations technology to wine, alcoholic drinks and wine vinegar, setting guidelines that notably influenced on the quality of obtained products and rooting out of fraud; and brought new efficient aeration systems in order to speed up the ageing of fine wines and the acidification of wine. With her group, she introduced new analysis methods, such as gas chromatology, in order to study the scents of wines, atomic absorption spectroscopy and detection of C14 in vinegar. She was editor of the book Enología: Temas actuales (Asociación Nacional de Químicos, 1982) and co-author with Carmen Polo of El vinagre de vino (CSIC, 1991) which won the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) Prize in 1993.

National and International awards

Concha has been awarded with a large number of distinctions and awards, both national and international. Among her international recognitions stand out the Diploma of Associate of Academia Italiana della Vite e del Vino de Siena (Italy) in 1979 and the title of Academician of Academia Italiana de la Vite e del Vino. She was also awarded with the DLG Deukmünze of the Deutsche Landwirtschafts Gesellschaft (German Society for Agricultural Economics), (Frankfurt, 1981), and the Medal of the Order of Noble Wines of the Jura and Gruyere de Comte. At the national level, Concha was Honorary Member of Asociación de Investigación de la Industria Vinagrera and Distinguished Collegiate of Colegio Oficial de Químicos. In addition, she was awarded the Gold and Brilliant Insignia of Asociación Nacional de Químicos de España. She was also an Honorary Associate of Asociación de Mujeres Investigadoras y Tecnólogas. In 1991, she was awarded the Research Award in Food Sciences by the CEOE, in recognition of the work carried out at Instituto de Fermentaciones Industriales  (CSIC), as well as for her contribution to the promotion and management of research in Food Science and Technology. In the same year of her retirement, 1994, she received the Mujer Progresista del Instituto de la Mujer award.