figure a

Professor María Cruz Moreno-Bondi in the late days (reproduced with permission, © 2022 Elena Benito-Peña)

Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi has passed away and left us to a certain extent.

Writing about a colleague you admire and believe has done significant work for the analytical community is acutely painful. However, we did not want our scientific recognition from Microchimica Acta to be missing.

Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi, a Full Professor at the University Complutense of Madrid, was a top-quality woman scientist. Although her expertise was born and developed in the field of Analytical Chemistry, her research covered novel and multidisciplinary chemistry of excellent scientific quality. Her smart vision was undoubtedly one of the distinctive characteristics of Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi. Specifically, her research interests were developing luminescent optical sensors and biosensors based on molecularly imprinted polymers, nanomaterials, epitope-mimicking peptides, recombinant antibodies, phage display, and other biological techniques and their applications in relevant fields of analysis. Her scientific production has led to obtaining an innumerable list of scientific merits, whose precise detail is not the subject of this Obituary, since they are very well-known.

Just to mention a few, she has authored over 130 peer-reviewed papers, some of them published in Microchimica Acta, several books and book chapters, and participated in numerous national and international projects. She was also the recipient of several awards (the Young Researchers Award from the Spanish Society of Analytical Chemistry in 1993 and the Researchers Award in the Area of Analytical Chemistry from the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (2010)).

Beyond figures and metrics, Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi made an essential contribution to chemistry in general and to analytical chemistry in particular. More importantly, her contributions are remarkable and unquestionable throughout her tireless career. Indeed, Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi will be remembered as an extraordinary scientist and scholar with extensive experience in Analytical Chemistry, as well as extensive knowledge in other fields of science.

She was also an active researcher who enjoyed traveling and collaborating with old and new colleagues. She always encouraged her students to travel abroad to outstanding research laboratories to gain new knowledge and experiences. Indeed, her international personality was another key feature of Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi, who enjoyed being a visiting professor at several prestigious international centers. During the early years of her career, she was a postdoc in the laboratory of Prof. O. Wolfbeis in Austria, who was also our highly esteemed Editor-in-Chief of Microchimica Acta for many years, in addition to several research stays in the USA at different periods of her consolidated career.

As an excellent University professor, she never dissociated excellence in research from excellence in teaching, being aware of how important it is for researchers at the University to be able to transfer the essential values of science to students. Indeed, she was also dedicated to teaching students and training young researchers. She was a warm person, a dedicated scientist, and a wonderful mentor, friend, and colleague who was relentless and always interested in hearing new ideas. Her passion for science will continue to inspire us, and her influence on science will continue to be felt through her impact on her many students and colleagues.

However, above all, Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi was a person of a great personality who undertook her life at the University with the five senses/dimensions of a University professor-researcher, which are, in my opinion, rigor, honesty, perseverance, humility, and creativity. These qualities define her true legacy.

I was lucky to know her much better at the end of her life. For this reason, I met a mature and serene Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi, with the scientific clarity that comes from years of work and at that age where true and nontoxic ambition continues and does not calm down to improve herself. Very ill, she continued working with what she believed was necessary. I know this very well, as she involved me in some of her latest projects, which I very much hope to finish in her memory.

Her own words plainly convey what science and research were to Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi: “I have been lucky enough to work in something that I am passionate about, and that motivates me to keep going forward every morning. Nothing is achieved in life without effort and professionalism. This is how I transmit it to my students and, undoubtedly, one of my greatest satisfactions is to see them grow scientifically and professionally and to see that our passion, effort, and work services to improve everyone's life.” These words of Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi demonstrate and put into perspective the singular personality of the woman who is truly scientific beyond the figures.

This Obituary wants to recognize the remarkable scientific work and unforgettable personality of Prof. María Cruz Moreno-Bondi, Editor of the Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry journal from this Springer house to which we have the honor of belonging. In this framework, our sincere appreciation and gratitude.

We have lost the person, but we have not lost their legacy. Her print will stay in our community forever and will be even truer in that grand sum.

This Obituary is in her honor and in her memory.

Sometimes words are like late perfume flowers, while many others tell the truth on time. I hope this has been the case.

Thank you, Mari Cruz.

Alberto Escarpa

Editor-in-Chief, Microchimica Acta