Dr. Manuel Blanco Receives Honor from King of Spain

The International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) has published news that the Vice President of the Spanish IGS Chapter, Dr. Manuel Blanco, has been honored with the “Encomienda de la Orden del Mérito Civil” (Command of the Order of the Civil Merit). This extraordinary civil honor, given to Dr. Blanco for his scientific achievements, was awarded to him by His Majesty the King of Spain Felipe VI.
A representative of the King presented the award during a “small but moving” ceremony, as CEDEX’s Beatriz Mateo Sanz describes in her article on the IGS website.
Sanz writes, “The purpose of this decoration is to reward the civil merits acquired by Public Administration workers or people unconnected with the Administration that render or have rendered outstanding services to the State, with extraordinary works, profitable initiatives or with an exemplary constancy in the fulfilment of their duties.”
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
A Dedication to Geosynthetics
Dr. Manuel Blanco has worked with geosynthetics, and particularly with geomembranes, since the 1970s. He has contributed significantly to hydraulics applications (e.g., reservoirs) and durability studies.
Currently, Dr. Blanco heads up the Materials Department of the Central Laboratory of Structures and Materials at CEDEX. He also serves as a professor at University of Madrid and is President of the Spanish Committee of Standardization AEN/CTN 104, which is focused on waterproofing materials.
He was instrumental in the organization of EuroGeo 5 (the fifth European Conference on Geosynthetics), which was held in Valencia, Spain, and he co-authoered one of the keynote lectures at that event.
Learn more in the article at the IGS website.