These are the winners of the 2025 Medals of the Ateneo de Málaga

The Ateneo de Málaga has announced the winners of its 2025 Medals, with which this institution publicly recognizes individuals and institutions that stand out for their work in favor of the city.

This year's awardees are biologist and scientist María del Carmen García Martínez, ophthalmologist and president of the Royal Malagueña Academy of Sciences Fernando Orellana Ramos, university professor and entrepreneur Consuelo Gámez Amián, journalist Manuel Bellido, and orchestra conductor Arturo Díez Boscovich.

The medal award ceremony will take place on June 19th at 7:30 PM, at the Sala Fundación Unicaja María Cristina.

María del Carmen García Martínez, a graduate in Biology from the University of Seville and a PhD from the University of Málaga, has been the first female scientist to direct the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) in its 111-year history, (recently integrated into CSIC). She held the directorship of the Málaga branch of the IEO, from October 2021, and upon her return to the city, from February 2024 to March 2025.

She is co-author of the publication "Climate Change in the Spanish Mediterranean," awarded by RedLife magazine. She is a co-founder of the Mediterranean Climate Change Group (GCC), which monitors the Spanish Mediterranean through the RADMED project (Mediterranean Radials). She actively participates in the observation program in the Gulf of Cádiz (STOCA). She established the Climate Change laboratory at the Oceanographic Center of Málaga, is responsible for implementing a real-time observation system on the coast of Málaga (MARETO: Málaga Real Time Observatory). Internationally, she has represented the IEO at the European Marine Board (EMB), an organization that includes 35 European marine research institutes. She has led the European Marine Board Communications Panel, a group of European experts that promotes the dissemination of EMB activities and advocates for scientific literacy (Ocean Literacy). She has represented Spain and the IEO at CIESM (International Council for the Exploration of the Mediterranean), POGO (Partnership for the Ocean Global Observation), and MONGOOS (Mediterranean Ocean Network of the Global Ocean Observation Systems). She has recently been selected as one of the 100 women "champions in the blue economy" and her story will be published in the book titled: '100 Women Champions in the Blue Economy'. Previously, she was chosen as one of the 10 women featured at the Win Big event held in Rome at the end of March 2025.

Fernando Orellana Ramos holds a degree in Medicine and Surgery (University of Granada, 1976), a PhD in Medicine (University of Sevilla, 1979), and is a specialist in Ophthalmology (1979). He has been a collaborating professor at the universities of Sevilla and Málaga.

He is a member of several Spanish societies: Ophthalmology, Retina and Vitreous, Strabismology, Ergophthalmology, and Contactology, being one of the most recognized scientists in the city, combining his medical and scientific activity (he has been president of the Malagueña Academy of Sciences since March 2016 and a full academician of the same since 1990) with extensive activity dedicated to culture in the city from the said Academy. Additionally, he has carried out a commendable social task of helping the needy with volunteer work in Cameroon treating patients from the Bangwua tribe, in collaboration with local health authorities at the Fomten Hospital. He is an Honorary Member of the College of Physicians of Málaga and is a Corresponding Academician of the Royal Academies of Medicine and Surgery of Sevilla and of Eastern Andalusia, Ceuta, and Melilla. He received the 'Conde de Arruga' Award (1980). Pope Benedict XVI awarded him the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (2018).

Consuelo Gámez Amián, Chelo Gámez, completed her studies in Economic Sciences in Madrid, before joining as a professor at the young faculty of Economic Sciences of Málaga in 1968, being the first woman in its history to be part of its teaching staff. A long career of 38 years in which she taught orthodox economic theory and macroeconomics. In 1998, she was appointed University Professor, and in 2009, she received the faculty's insignia of Economic Sciences, her most distinguished distinction. Her knowledge and numerous researches have served to endorse her trajectory as a reference in advanced economic studies, to which more than forty books and specialized publications, journal articles, and direction of several doctoral theses are added. Once retired, she redirected her activity to the business field with the creation of the Dehesa de los Monteros project, linked to pig breeding in the Genal Valley and the production of hams, being one of the great reference companies of the sector. A model coexisting with sustainability and the recovery of the Genal Valley.

She has been an Emeritus Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Málaga. Member of the Advisory Council of the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences, president of ASPROJUMA, (Association of retired professors of the UMA) and academician of the Malagueña Academy of Gastronomy and Ateneísta since 1965.

Arturo Díez Boscovich completed his musical studies at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Málaga, where he studied composition. Awarded for the Best Musical Work of the year 2014 by the city of Málaga. Musical Director of the Andalusian Lyric Theater, director of the International Film Music Festival of the cities of Úbeda and Córdoba of the Lyric Theater of Huelva. He has conducted for five consecutive years in the Lyric Season of the Teatro Cervantes de Málaga, leading the Philharmonic Orchestra of our city and in 2019 he carried out his third production for the Teatro de la Zarzuela together with the orchestra of the Community of Madrid.

He has successfully conducted the majority of the country's symphony orchestras, such as the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain (ONE), Symphony of Madrid, Symphony Orchestra of Barcelona and National of Catalonia, Symphony Orchestra of Bilbao, Orchestra of Castilla y León, City of Granada Orchestra, Philharmonic of Málaga, Symphony of the Balearic Islands, and Orchestra and Choir of the Community of Madrid, Córdoba Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Balearic Islands and in 2021 his debut with the RTVE Orchestra at the Monumental Theater of Madrid. Since 2010 he has been the musical director of the Film Music Festival. In 2019 he made his debut on the big screen writing the music for the movie Urubú. That same year, he was chosen by Antonio Banderas as the musical director of his new project A Chorus Line. Arturo is the principal conductor of the Soho Pop Symphony.

Manuel Bellido is from Montilla (Córdoba) and lives in Torremolinos, where he has spent much of his life. He boasts an extensive and diverse professional career in the field of audiovisual communication, with a prominent role in the dissemination and analysis of Andalusian cinema from public media. With more than three decades linked to Canal Sur, Bellido has combined informative work with a continued commitment to culture, and especially to cinema produced in Andalusia. His dedication to cinematographic journalism was recently recognized with the Juan Antonio Bermúdez Award for Informative Work, granted by the Association of Cinematographic Writers of Andalusia (ASECAN). This award represented in 2023 the recognition of a career focused on covering cinema from Andalusian public television. Bellido has been a correspondent at numerous national and international audiovisual festivals, both for Canal Sur and for FORTA, and for the last ten years, until his recent retirement, he directed the program 'Una de cine', a weekly space that offers interviews with actors, directors, and professionals of the sector, with a distinctly Andalusian approach.

As a local, cultural, and sports chronicler, Bellido's trajectory at Canal Sur, which on January 15th of this year celebrated 36 years, has been marked by his versatility. He has intensely covered local issues, such as the floods in Málaga in 1989 or the case of Julen, and has closely followed the evolution of Malagueño football, from the days of Club Deportivo Málaga to the present of Málaga CF.