Antonio García Bellido, a scientist specialised in the research into the genetics of cell development and differentiation, was born in Madrid on the 30th April 1936. Son of the eminent historian Antonio García y Bellido, his mother was a teacher of Greek in Madrid.
Educated in an atmosphere loaded with culture, interested in History, Literature and Science, from an early age he felt drawn by the origins of life. Thus, he studied a degree in Biology at the Complutense University of Madrid, and in the year of his graduation (1958) was already involved with the Higher Council for Scientific Research [CSIC - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas], thanks to a grant. Doctor in Science with a Special Prize in 1962, he extended his studies in the Universities of Cambridge and Zurich, as well as in the California Institute of Technology. He was a visiting lecturer in this institute, as well as the University of Chicago and the Molecular Biology department in Sidney (Australia).
Teacher at the CSIC since 1974, he was later to occupy the posts of director of the Institute of Genetics and subsequently of the Centre for Molecular Biology, from 1980 to 1981. He is currently the director of the Department of Development Genetics at the said Centre.
García Bellido is one of the best-known Spanish scientists abroad, and one of the favoured disciples of Severo Ochoa, of whom he admits to being "a great admirer, because one learns from him the attitude and style to have towards science and the professions." He is responsible for work of great importance in the field of the genetics of cell development and differentiation, tackling the problem of explaining the paradox of how, from a single cell, the egg or zygote, which contains all the genetic information for the functions of the adult organism, other cells are formed in successive divisions which are gradually differentiated in their form and function. These cells later group together in very precise formations, giving rise to the different tissues and organs.
He has given over a hundred lectures in Spain, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Australia and Japan, among other countries.
A candidate for the Nobel Prize in 1979, he is a numerary member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and has published works in numerous scientific journals.
The methods employed in his research are highly original and his findings, of international importance, have opened the way to understanding the genetic mechanism of differentiation and morphogenesis in living beings. In the words of the English doctor and Nobel Prize-winner, Francis Crick, the work of Antonio García Bellido has opened up a view to understanding the logic of development.
Although he states that prizes are by the way for a scientist, he has on his curriculum the Leopold Mayer Prize of the French Academy of Sciences, and is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Washington, the Royal Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is doctor "honoris causa" of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
His wife, María Paz Capdevila, is likewise a researcher at the "Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas", sharing many of her research projects with her husband.