Cambridge scientist dies in Spanish train crash while traveling for award

Dr. Marta Shahbazi, an affiliate associate professor at the University of Cambridge and group leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), died in a Spanish train crash near Urda, south of Madrid, which killed 69 people, BBC reported.

She was traveling to a conference in Andalusia to receive an award from the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology for her contributions to early human development research, according to the BBC and The Guardian.

Shahbazi was recognized for her work on human embryos and cell biology and led the Shahbazi Laboratory at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, where she was described as an inspiring and passionate scientist by her colleagues at the LMB.

The LMB highlighted her role as a mother of two and her advocacy for balancing family and career, calling her a much-admired role model for 'mother scientists.'

The crash has been widely mourned in the scientific community, with tributes emphasizing her talent and the profound loss caused by her death.