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Professor Alejandro Madrigal, former EBMT President, recognised in The Queen's Birthday Honours

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EBMT Organization

We congratulate Professor Alejandro Madrigal (pictured above) who has been awarded the honour of the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Professor Madrigal has been recognised for services to haematology, stem cell transplantation and cancer research.

Commenting on his award, Professor Madrigal said: “I am hugely honoured to have received this award, particularly in the year of Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2022. 

“I feel it is a real testament to how fortunate and privileged I have been to work with so many supportive and exceptional colleagues, to whom I am forever grateful, for their dedication in improving the outcome of the lives of patients with blood cancer in need of a stem cell transplant.”

Anna Sureda, current EBMT President and EBMT Secretary from 2010-2014, explains: “On behalf of all the EBMT Community, I would like to congratulate Alejandro for the highly-deserved Honours he’s received. At EBMT, his work to strengthen the role of our Society as a world-leading organisation in the field of stem cell transplantation was outstanding.” Professor Sureda continues: “All these years, Professor Madrigal contributed to the EBMT’s mission - to save and improve the lives of patients with blood-related disorders.” 

Professor Madrigal received an Honorary Membership by the EBMT Board in 2021 in recognition of his many achievements in the advancement of the field of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapies.

Professor Madrigal first became involved with EBMT in 1993, after finishing his post-doctoral training at Stanford University in the US and arriving in London to take-up his appointment as Scientific Director of the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust (with the mission to establish an Academic and Research Program at the Charity).

He worked as secretary of the EBMT Immunology Working Party, working first with chair Professor Jon J. van Rood and later his successor Professor Eliane Gluckman. During that time, they created the EUROCORD project and obtained three consecutive EU grants to support this project (EUROCORD I, II and III). In 2002, Professor Madrigal himself became chair of this group. He also Chaired the EBMT/WMDA Subcommittee, and led and Chaired the prestigious EU-FP6 grant ‘AlloStem’ with a grant of 8M euros that involved over 29 partners from 19 countries (mostly EBMT members).

In March 2009 during the EBMT Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, he was voted (by an overwhelming majority), as President-Elect and in 2010 became President at the Annual Meeting in Vienna and presided over annual meetings held in Paris (2011), Geneva (2012), London (2013) and finally in Milan (2014). During that time, he also Co-Chaired the ASBMT/EBMT Subcommittee.

And his work at EBMT is not over! In 2019, he was invited to be a member of the EBMT Finance Committee and is also a member of the EBMT National Scientific Committee (Glasgow 2023) and a member of several of the Societies’ Working Parties.