Tributes paid to ‘inspiring’ University of Cambridge scientist who died in Spanish train crash

Dr Marta Shahbazi was travelling to a conference to receive award for scientific excellence in developmental biology

An “inspiring” University of Cambridge scientist died in the Spanish train collision on Wednesday which killed at least 69 people.

Dr Marta Shahbazi, an affiliate associate professor at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and a group leader at the city’s Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), was travelling on one of the trains involved in the crash near Urda in Toledo province.

The LMB said the mother of two had recently won the Spanish Society of Developmental Biology’s scientific excellence prize. She had been due to be presented with the award during its conference in El Rompido, Andalucía.

In a LinkedIn post, the LMB said it was deeply saddened by her death, which was “a profound shock and a huge loss”, adding: “Martha was an inspiring, talented and passionate scientist whose research shed light on the earliest steps in the development of human embryos and how errors occur that lead to failed pregnancies.”

It said she was a role model who had written eloquently about balancing her family and career, describing herself as a “mother scientist”.

Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, a group leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute outside Cambridge, wrote: “Marta Shahbazi was a beautiful person: a close collaborator, a treasured friend, and an inspiration to me both as a scientist and as a mother.

“As a scientist, we shared so many dreams. We co-supervised two students together, and I cannot describe how much joy it was to work alongside her. Some of our work will still be published in the coming months, and anyone who reads it will feel the passion she poured into everything she did … “My thoughts are with her family. Anyone who knew Marta could see how deeply they were a unit, and how much they meant to her.”

The Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CiMUS), based in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, paid tribute to Shahbazi as “a brilliant young researcher”.

The disaster was Spain’s second high-speed rail crash this year. Both collisions occurred on the line between the central city of Madrid, Spain’s capital, and Seville, in the Andalucía region in the south of the country.

Three days of national mourning were observed from Thursday. The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, described the incident as a “tragedy” and has promised an investigation.