University of Cordoba professor Manuel Tena Sempere has this week received the European Journal of Endocrinology Prize (EJE), which the European Society of Endocrinology uses to recognise annually the work and career of scientists under forty-five specialising in endocrinology. The award has been presented in previous years to those who are currently the most influential endocrinologists at an international level. Because of this, Tena Sempere has received the prize, in his own words, with “satisfaction and considerable responsibility. Satisfaction for what it implies for the recognition of the continued work of our team, in which a lot of people work, from senior researchers to doctorate students and technicians, who have all decisively contributed to the awarding of this prize. On the other hand, it is a great responsibility to join a list of such highly prestigious colleagues as the winners of this prize; I hope to be up to their expectations.”

Despite that, the University of Cordoba professor assures that for researchers “awards are not the engine of our work; I would say that neither is the salary, which in many parts of the researcher’s career is unsure or scarce. Our profession has a high vocational component, and in this, evaluation and appraisal received by our colleagues are especially important. In this sense, receiving a European prize such as this supposes recognition from our own colleagues, a certain support to the distance we have come and an incentive to keep doing things with yet more determination.”

Presently, the research team directed by Tena Sempere is working on diverse projects towards the characterisation of basic control mechanisms of puberty and the reproductive system, with special attention to their modulation for metabolic and body weight factors.