An award-winning University of Cambridge researcher was among the 69 people killed in a catastrophic Spanish train disaster as she traveled to collect a prize for scientific excellence.
Dr. Marta Shahbazi died on Wednesday when the train she was riding collided with a stationary train near Urda, south of Madrid. The mother-of-two served as an affiliate associate professor and led a research group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, where her work focused on human embryos and cell biology.
At the time of the crash, Dr. Shahbazi was journeying to attend a conference in El Rompido, Andalusia, where she was scheduled to receive an award from the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology for her contributions to the study of early human development.
The LMB released a statement paying tribute to her life and career, describing her death as a “profound shock and a huge loss.”
“As a wife and mother of two young children, Marta wrote eloquently about balancing her family and career, serving as a much-admired role model for a ‘mother scientist’, a term she used to describe herself,” the laboratory stated. Colleagues praised her as an “inspiring, talented and passionate scientist” whose investigations illuminated the earliest steps of human embryonic development and the cellular errors that cause failed pregnancies.
The tragedy occurred when a state-operated Renfe high-speed train crashed into the rear of a stationary train operated by the Iryo company. With more than 540 passengers aboard the two trains combined, the collision ranks as one of the deadliest rail disasters in modern European history and Spain’s worst train crash since 2013, prompting the government to declare three days of national mourning.
News of her death was initially confirmed via social media by CiMUS in Santiago de Compostela, where an aunt of Dr. Shahbazi is employed. Dr. Shahbazi completed her PhD at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre before moving to the University of Cambridge as a post-doctoral fellow, ultimately joining the LMB in 2020.
