60 Negocios i The Lifestyle photos courtesy of unam UNAM, Awarded for its Influence in Ibero-America The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has received the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in recognition of its influence on the Ibero-American culture and environment. The jury for the award, given since 1981 by the Prince of Asturias Foundation of Spain, judged UNAM to be “the academic and formative model for many generations of students from diverse countries. It has nourished the Ibero-American environment of very valuable intellectuals and scientists.” The largest public university in Mexico and Ibero-America “has promoted powerful currents of humanistic, liberal and democratic thought in America and it has extended its decisive influence to create an extraordinary variety of institutions that enlarge the academic world and link it to the society they serve,” the jury said. UNAM was founded in 1910 as an institution of superior teaching that was the heir to the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, created in 1551. In 1929, Mexico’s government granted it autonomous status and the institution adopted its current name. It is Mexico’s most important public university and one of Ibero-America’s most important research and education centers. It has approximately 300,000 students and PRIZE WINNERS Mexican institutions and individuals who have winned the Prince of Asturias Award: • UNAM Communication and Humanities, 2009 • El Colegio de México Social Sciences, 2001 • Ricardo Miledi (neurobiologist)* Scientific and Technical Research, 1999 • Carlos Fuentes (writer)* Writing, 1994 • Francisco Bolívar Zapata (molecular biologist)* Scientific and Technical Research, 1991 • Fondo de Cultura Económica (Editorial fund) Communication and Humanities, 1989 • Marcos Moshinsky (physicist)* Scientific and Technical Research, 1988 • Pablo Rudomin (neuroscientist) Scientific and Technical Research, 1987 • Emilio Rosenblueth (seismic engineer)* Scientific and Technical Research, 1985 • Juan Rulfo (writer) Writing, 1983
• José López Portillo (politician)* International Cooperation,1981 more than 34,000 professors and researchers. From its classrooms have come Mexico’s three Nobel Prize winners - Mario Molina, in Chemistry (1995); Octavio Paz, for Literature (1990); and Alfonso García Robles; Peace Nobel Prize (1982). Also, six of the eight who have received the Prince of Asturias prize have graduated from this university. In the area of humanities, UNAM has been recognized for its openness to Ibero- American thoughts and ideologies and also as a home for distinguished thinkers and professors from around the world. Its humanities research centers, such as its institutions of historical, philosophical, philological and aesthetic investigation, have generated more than 2,700 books. Also, 16 specialized periodicals are edited in its schools. UNAM is in charge of administering the National Library and the National Newspaper Archive, as well as a network of 141 university libraries. It’s also in charge of one philharmonic orchestra and a symphonic one; radio and television stations; Mexico’s most important film library, at the University Center of Film Studies (Latin America’s oldest film school); and a network of university museums. In 2007, UNAM’s main campus in Mexico City, was declared Cultural Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO for being a monumental collection of 20th century modernism. Also, the university has several buildings in Mexico City’s historic center that have also been considered cultural patrimonies of humanity. The Prince of Asturias prize is awarded each year to eight people or institutions in the areas of art, international cooperation, harmony, social sciences, communication and humanities, sports, scientific and technical research and writing. n source: prince of asturias foundation * graduated from unam www.fundacionprincipedeasturias.org
article unam Founded in 1910, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) is one of Ibero-America’s most important public learning centers • 18 departments • 4 university schools • 46 research institutes and centers • Nearly 300,000 students • 34,000 professors and researchers
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