"Work, entrepreneurship, energy, coherence": Manuel Vázquez's lessons in his retirement

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Something dims in the hallway when a great researcher and colleague departs... to live life. Because retirement is a well-deserved dish for Manuel Vázquez, now an emeritus professor of the Nanomagnetism and Magnetization Processes Group. But one thing doesn't contradict the other: Manuel Vázquez (Don Manuel) will be missed, a lot... even though some bet everything that he won't really go very far.

To bid him farewell, the Institute of Materials Science in Madrid (ICMM-CSIC) held a warm and emotional tribute on November 22nd, where acquaintances and friends of all ages and places gathered to share the greatness of Don Manuel in front of him. Besides some of his students, the event also congregated some others well-known colleagues, such as Ron Goldfardb (president of the IEEE Magnetics Society) or Conrado Rillo Millán (director of the Material Science Institute of Aragón).  

The event, which was streamed and can be watched below, featured dozens of anecdotes ("If we didn't play football, he wouldn't approve our thesis") and a dose, if not more, of science and discoveries made in a life dedicated to magnetism, from micro to nano ("Manuel realized how to control the quality of micro-wires...").

And lessons, many lessons: "Work, entrepreneurship, energy, professionalism, solidarity, coherence" were some of the most repeated words, although not the only ones. Because the event, obviously, also served to bring smiles (and some tears), recalling Don Manuel's lessons in both science and beyond... as if they are not always the same thing: "Having a plate of ham with a foreign researcher is also work," some remembered; "networking is actually professionally flirting," others mentioned... and all of this without even mentioning all the couples (and their offspring) formed under his guidance.

The organizing committee was composed of Julián González (UPV/EHU), Cristina Gómez Polo (UPNA), Pilar Marín (UCM, IMA), Jose Miguel García Martín (IMN-CSIC), Victor Prida (UniOvi), David Navas (ICMM-CSIC), Rafael Pérez de Real (ICMM-CSIC), Oksana Fesenko (ICMM-CSIC), and Agustina Asenjo (ICMM-CSIC).