A respected researcher from the University of Cambridge has died in a tragic railway accident in Spain while on her way to receive an award for scientific excellence. Dr. Marta Shahbazi was travelling to an awards ceremony on Wednesday when the train she was on collided with another near Urda, south of Madrid, causing the deaths of 69 people.
The mother of two was an associate professor and led a group of researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge. She had won several awards for her work on human embryos and cell biology. Shahbazi had been named the winner of an award from the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology for her contributions to the study of early human development and was due to receive the award at a conference in El Rompido, Andalusia.
In a statement, the LMB paid tribute to the “inspiring, talented and passionate scientist” and described her death as a “profound shock and a great loss”. The institute noted that Marta, a wife and mother of two young children, had written eloquently about balancing family and career, serving as a highly admired role model for a “scientist-mother”, a term she used to describe herself. Her research had shed light on the earliest steps in the development of human embryos and how errors that lead to pregnancy failures occur.
Dr. Shahbazi had completed her PhD at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre before joining the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher and then the LMB in 2020. The news of her death was first confirmed in a social media post by CiMUS, based in Santiago de Compostela, where Dr. Shahbazi’s aunt works.
The accident in Spain occurred when a high-speed state train operated by Renfe collided with the rear of a stopped train operated by Iryo. It is one of the deadliest railway disasters in modern European history and Spain’s worst accident since 2013. Three days of national mourning were declared. More than 540 people were on board the two trains.
Taken from BBC News