Jezabel Curbelo receives the 2025 National Research Award for Young Researchers in Mathematics and ICT

Full professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and researcher at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica, Jezabel Curbelo received the 2025 National Research Award for Young Researchers in the María Andresa Casamayor category (Mathematics and ICT) at a ceremony held this Monday at the Palau de Pedralbes in Barcelona. The prize highlights her work in fluid dynamics applied to geophysics.

King Felipe VI presided over the ceremony, where twenty researchers were honoured by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Half of this year’s recipients work at scientific institutions in Catalonia. Curbelo was joined by nine other young researchers under the age of forty, alongside ten senior figures recognised for their international trajectory. Each award carries an endowment of 30,000 euros.

In his address, the King argued that scientific talent must be “accompanied, supported, sustained and recognised” by both individuals and institutions, citing the nineteenth-century Catalan inventor Narcís Monturiol, whose pioneering submarine never moved past the experimental stage for lack of financial backing. The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, described Barcelona as “one of the principal research hubs in southern Europe”. At the same time, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, pointed to Catalonia’s more than 33,000 active researchers.

For Curbelo, the recognition arrives at a key point in her trajectory: “It is a great joy! It is an honour to see the work carried out over these years recognised, and also a source of motivation to keep moving forward and looking for new challenges.”

Her research focuses on fluid dynamics applied to geophysics, particularly on the simulation and modelling of complex processes in the atmosphere, the ocean, and the Earth’s interior. She is currently leading projects that seek new ways to understand climate change, such as the Ramón Areces Foundation-funded project CLaCos – Deciphering Climate Change, and developing techniques based on particle trajectories to study geophysical fluid systems. Her recent work tracking jet streams as coherent Lagrangian structures is one example of this approach. “Right now, I am working on several projects, on the one hand, deciphering climate change, and on the other, applying a dynamical perspective to study different geophysical fluid systems using various techniques based on particle trajectories and spectral clustering methods of these trajectories.”

“Applied mathematics is a very powerful tool to provide solutions to problems that have a great impact on everyday life.”

Her academic career has taken her through leading international centres and universities such as ICMAT in Madrid, UCLA in the United States, and the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, before joining UPC and CRM. She emphasises the profound impact of these experiences on her scientific approach: “They have completely shaped my way of doing science and have been key to my training and development. I would not be here answering this interview or have received this award if it weren’t for all the people I have had the good fortune to work with.”

Beyond scientific results, Curbelo highlights the social importance of applied mathematics: “I would like people to understand that applied mathematics is a very powerful tool to provide solutions to problems that have a great impact on everyday life. Moreover, it is not a solitary job: doing research in applied mathematics means collaborating with physicists, engineers, oceanographers… and this joint effort allows us to address questions that would be very difficult, or impossible, to solve separately.”

With this recognition, Jezabel Curbelo strengthens her position as one of the leading voices in applied mathematics in Spain. The CRM warmly congratulates Jezabel on this award.