Cambridge scientist among 69 victims of tragic railway crash in Spain

Among the at least 69 people who lost their lives in the serious railway accident in Spain was Dr. Marta Shahbazi, a scientist and the head of a research group at the University of Cambridge.

Shahbazi was travelling on one of the two trains that collided near Urda, south of Madrid.

Her death was confirmed by the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) in Cambridge. She was an associate professor at the University of Cambridge and a member of the university’s Stem Cell Institute.

Spain’s CiMUS institute reacted to her death, describing Shahbazi as an “exceptional young researcher”.

“Marta was a talented scientist, head of a research group at the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology and an associate professor at the University of Cambridge’s Stem Cell Institute,” the institute said in a message.

Her specialisation was cell biology, while Shahbazi’s scientific work had made an important contribution to research into early human development. For this work, she had been honoured with an award from the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology.

The award was due to be presented at the society’s conference, scheduled to take place in El Rompido, in south-western Andalusia. Before her death was confirmed, MRC LMB had announced that Shahbazi was on one of the trains involved in the accident, but it was not known where she was.

Shahbazi had completed her doctorate at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre. After that, she began working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge and joined the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 2020.

The accident occurred on 28 October, when a high-speed train operated by the state-owned company Renfe collided with the rear of a stationary train operated by Iryo.

At the time of the collision, more than 540 people were on the two trains. According to the preliminary toll, at least 69 of them lost their lives.

Esther Padilla, spokesperson for the government of Castilla-La Mancha, said that the Iryo train was carrying 146 passengers and an infant, while 397 people were travelling on the Renfe train.

The scale of the accident has placed it among the most serious railway tragedies in modern European history and made it the deadliest incident of its kind in Spain since 2013. Spanish authorities declared three days of national mourning in honour of the victims.