Professor of Physics Pedro Miguel Echenique has been awarded the "Passion for Science" prize at the international science film festival #LabMeCrazy!, organized each year by the University of Navarra Science Museum. The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at the festival gala, to be held at the University of Navarra Museum Theater.

Pedro Miguel Echenique (Isaba, 1950) was one of the first students to enroll in the Physics degree program offered by the University of Navarra at its San Sebastián campus, where he graduated in 1972. He holds doctorates from the University of Cambridge and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is currently professor emeritus of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

Echenique has been president of the Donostia International Physics Center and CIC Nanogune. He is honorary president of Jakiunde, the Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters of the Basque Country. He has devoted considerable effort to promoting science as an economic and cultural activity and highlighting the importance of a scientifically informed society.

"It is an honor for #LabMeCrazy! to recognize the career of this great scientist; a researcher who has promoted fundamental science as a cultural and social engine. In addition, he has developed an extraordinary work of science communication and is the best example of transmitting the passion for science to new generations," says Bienvenido León, director of #LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival.

Echenique was Minister of Education for the Basque Government. He has been an overseas fellow at Churchill College and visiting professor at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical, and Natural Sciences. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Valladolid, Public University of Navarra, Complutense University of Madrid, Aalto University in Finland, Primada de América Autónoma University in Santo Domingo, and the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Among the multiple recognitions and awards attributed to him in his professional career are the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research, Max Planck Award for Physics, "Xabier María de Munibe", Euskadi Award for Research, "Dupont" Award for Science, Prince of Viana Award for Culture, CSIC Tree of Science Award, Iberdrola Award for Science and Technology, National Blas Cabrera Award for Physics, Materials Science and Earth Science, among others. He received the Gold Medal of the City of San Sebastian, the Gold Medal of the Royal Spanish Society of Physics, Gold Medal of Gipuzkoa and in 2016 the Gold Medal of Navarra. He was named Universal Basque of the Year in 1998. He is Favorite Son of the town of Isaba in Navarra.

With the "Passion for Science" award, Pedro Miguel Echenique joins the list of scientists who have had brilliant careers and who have been honored in previous editions of this festival: Francis Mojica, Margarita del Val, Luis Enjuanes, Vicente Larraga and Mariano Esteban, Clara Grima, Juan Luis Arsuaga, and Sara García Alonso.

#LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival is an international science film festival organized by the Science Museum of the University of Navarra, with the collaboration of the Caja Navarra Foundation, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) / Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Government of Navarra, SACYR Foundation, Laboral Kutxa, the Lilly Foundation and Sanitas.