UPM professor Amable Liñán, TEDAE 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award
The Spanish Association of Defense, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies (TEDAE in Spanish) recognizes the career and contributions of Amable Liñán to aerospace engineering and more specifically to the field of combustion.
30.11.2023
The TEDAE 2023 Awards recognize people and institutions whose technical, managerial, business, informative or academic work represents a relevant contribution in the field of the Defense, Security, Aeronautics and Space sectors, as well as commitment with professional excellence and an outstanding contribution to society. This year, the association has awarded UPM emeritus professor Amable Liñán with the “TEDAE Lifetime Achievement” award, a prize that was given to him by the Spanish Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu.
Liñán is considered a world authority in the field of combustion. His research has revolved around the basic problems of combustion, having collaborated directly with ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). His work on the application of mathematics to combustion problems has been considered pioneering. Its approach, eminently practical, extends to current problems such as environmental pollution or the energy crisis.
Amable Liñán began his research at the Combustion Group created by Gregorio Millán to support Theódore von Kármán, the illustrious North American engineer. Author of more than 200 publications, his scientific work includes the article “The asymptotic structure of counter-flow diffusion flames for large activation energies”, a materpiece on the subject, and the treatise “Fundamental Aspects of Combustion”, published with Forman A. Williams.
As a teacher, he can be proud of having transmitted his knowledge to the more than 5,000 engineers who have passed through his classes since 1961. Some of them have become recognized professionals in different scientific fields. Since 1965, he has been a professor of Fluid Mechanics at the UPM, currently with the status of emeritus at the Higher Technical School of Aeronautical and Space Engineering (ETSIAE).
The recognition of the TEDAE is an addition to a wide range of awards achieved during his career. The greatest recognition was obtained in 1993 with the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research, but it also includes other awards such as the Research Awards of Castilla y León and the Comunidad de Madrid, the Emilio Herrera Award from the Aena Foundation and the Zeldovich Gold Medal from the International Combustion Institute. He is also a member of several academies and has an Honorary Doctorate from four Spanish universities.
The award that TEDAE now grants him, at his recently turned 89 years old, is a finishing touch to a lifetime linked to aerospace engineering, to the effort, perseverance and dedication of a man from Leon who packed his bags from Noceda de Cabrera to study in Madrid and begin that enormous trajectory that still lasts.
This year’s TEDAE awards have also recognized two other categories: “Social Commitment” and “Professional Excellence”. The first of them has awarded the Military Emergency Unit (UME) for its UMÉdula campaign to promote the donation of Bone Marrow, while the award for “Professional Excellence” has been to Silvia Lazcano, president of Doba Solutions SL and Honorary member of the Spanish Aerospace Technology Platform (PAE).
TEDAE’s president Ricardo Martí, has remarked that "these awards allow us to transmit to society and other sectors the innovative spirit to contribute to economic, technological and social progress."
About TEDAE
The Spanish Association of Defense, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies (TEDAE) is a non-profit association whose purpose is to represent and promote all of the 98 companies that make it up and the four strategic sectors it represents.