Emilia Currás facts for kids

Emilia Teresa Julia Currás Puente (born October 8, 1927 – died March 29, 2020) was a smart Spanish scientist and teacher. She was known for her work as an information scientist. She also studied philosophy and the history of science. Emilia Currás was a pioneer, meaning she was one of the first to explore the deep ideas behind information and how we organize it.

Biography and career

Emilia Currás was born in Madrid, Spain, on October 8, 1927. Her parents were from Galicia. During the Spanish Civil War, Emilia and her family lived in Alberic, Valencia. After the war, they moved to Tetuan, where her mother worked as a teacher.

In the mid-1940s, the family returned to Madrid. Emilia went to the Lope de Vega secondary school. She studied Chemical Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Santiago de Compostela. She graduated in 1953.

Emilia worked as a research assistant at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. She also worked at the Spanish National Research Council until 1955. Then, she went to the Technical University of Berlin in Germany. She earned her doctorate degree there in 1959.

In 1960, she started working for a private company. She helped create the Chemistry and Technical Translation Section at Hanumag-Barreiros in Madrid. A year later, she became the head of the Documentation Department at Auxini-Piritas Españolas. She stayed there until 1964.

She returned to Germany in 1965. There, she led the Materials Analysis Laboratory at Linde AG in Köln-Suhn. She also studied at the Institute of Documentation in Frankfurt/Main. In 1966, she became a Scientific Documentalist.

Emilia continued working in Germany until 1968. She was in charge of patent documentation at Dynamit Nobel. In 1969, she came back to Spain. She started and led the Documentation Department at Hispanoil in Madrid.

In 1970, she left private companies. She joined the Faculty of Sciences at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She also directed the Scientific Documentation Office there. On May 3, 1988, she became a member of the Spain's Royal Academy of Doctors [es].

Fields of work

Emilia Currás worked in several important fields. She made big contributions to philosophy, the history of science, and documentation. She also did important work in chemistry.

Philosophy and history of science

One of her most important ideas was the "Theory of Informationism." This idea came out in 1981 and was accepted in 1988. Informationism is a new way of understanding knowledge. It is based on how our brains work.

This theory says that information reaches our brain as tiny signals. These signals are like small bursts of energy. They hit our brain cells, called neurons, and make them active. This turns the signals into useful information.

According to Emilia Currás, information is central to our lives. It helps our brains and bodies grow and change. The more useful information our brain gets, the more our brain tissue develops. This helps societies and cultures grow.

Informationism believes that information is everywhere and is a science on its own. But it also connects to all other sciences in a deep way.

Documentation

Emilia Currás was a pioneer in documentation in Spain and many Spanish-speaking countries. She introduced the idea of "Documentation Sciences." This field brings together different ways to handle information in documents. The goal is to help users find information quickly and easily.

She helped design and build a thesaurus. A thesaurus is like a special dictionary that helps organize words and ideas. It makes it easier to find information. She wrote three books about how to create a thesaurus. These books looked at thesauri from different angles. This included how language works, how systems are built, and how computers handle information.

In 1976, she founded the Spanish Society for Scientific Information and Documentation (SEDIC). She was its president for twelve years. She also helped start other groups like Hispano Term and ASEABI. For eight years, she was a member of the International Federation for Documentation (FID).

She was part of the groups that advised and edited several journals, like the Journal of Information Science. She was also a member of important organizations. These included the American Library Association (ALA) and the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO).

Chemistry

Emilia Currás did research on a substance called molten antimony tribromide. This was the topic of her doctoral thesis. Her research led to the discovery of five new chemical compounds. These compounds were recorded in a database called Index Chemicus. She earned an "Excellent Cum Laude" for her work, which is a very high honor.

Because of her chemistry research, she was given the title of European Chemist many times. She was also a member of important chemistry groups in Spain.

Death

Emilia Currás passed away on March 29, 2020. She was 92 years old. She died in Madrid from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.

Selected awards

Emilia Currás received many awards for her work. Some of them include:

• Gold Medal of the Prof. Kaula Foundation (1990).
• Fellow of the Institute for Information Scientists, London (1992).
• FEDINE Medal of Technological Merit (1997).
• Honorary President of ISKO-Spain (1998).
• Gold Badge of the German Society of Information Scientists (DGI) (2002).
• Woman of the Year 2004 by The American Biographical Institute. She was included in their book Great women of the 21st Century.
• King's College in Cambridge (UK) included her in Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century (2004).
• Honorary Member of the Hispanic Association of Internet Documentalists (AHDI) since 2004.
• Gold and Brilliant Badge of the Association of Chemists of Madrid (2011).
• Member of the International Brotherhood of Researchers of Toledo.
• Honorary member of the SEDIC since 2013.
• Member of the Club of Rome.
• Knight's Cross from the government of Colombia.
• She received honors from many universities. These included universities in Düsseldorf, Zaragoza, Brasilia, San Marcos de Lima, Autónoma of Madrid, Opavá (Czech Republic), Complutense of Madrid, and La Manouba (Tunisia).

See also

In Spanish: Emilia Currás para niños