A Cambridge scientist was among those killed in the Spanish train collision on Wednesday that left at least 69 people dead, according to The Guardian.
Dr Marta Shahbazi, 41, was an affiliate associate professor at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and a group leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology. She was travelling on one of the trains involved in the crash near Urda, in Toledo province. The laboratory said she was a mother of two.
The laboratory said it was deeply saddened by her death, describing it as a profound shock and a huge loss. It called her an inspiring, talented and passionate scientist whose research shed light on the earliest steps in human embryo development and on how errors occur that lead to failed pregnancies. It said she was a role model who wrote about balancing family and career, describing herself as a mother scientist.
Shahbazi had recently won the Spanish Society of Developmental Biology's scientific excellence prize and was due to be presented with it at the society's conference in El Rompido, Andalucía. Tributes also came from Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, a group leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and from the Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases in Santiago de Compostela, which called her a brilliant young researcher. The disaster was Spain's second high-speed rail crash this year, with both collisions occurring on the line between Madrid and Seville. Three days of national mourning were observed from Thursday, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the incident a tragedy and promised an investigation.