OBITUARY

Prof. Dr. Adolf Valls i Soler (1942–2013)

Adolf Valls i Soler died on December 20, 2013 after a shortillness. He was head of the neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) at Cruces University Hospital, Bilbao, Spain, andProfessor in Paediatrics and Neonatology at the Universityof the Basque Country.

He was born in Barcelona on September 9, 1942, and hestudied medicine at Barcelona University, obtaining hisPaediatric Specialist degree in 1967. In 1968, he movedwith his wife Marta Crespo to Washington, DC for neonataltraining at Georgetown University Hospital, supervised byDr. Dave Abramson. His two children Xavier and Elizabethwere born in the USA. He returned to Spain in 1973 asConsultant in Neonatology at Cruces University Hospital.He was head of the NICU between 1989 and August 2013,when he retired.

He worked as a clinical lecturer at the University of theBasque Country, and he taught medical students from 1977until his retirement. He obtained his PhD degree at thatuniversity in 1989 and was appointed as Professor in 2003.

At retirement, Adolf Valls led research at BioCrucesMedical Research Institute, coordinating the Spanish Pae-diatric Research Network for Maternal and Child Health(Red SAMID) and the Spanish group for neonatal patientsafety (SENeo). Internationally, he established and coordi-

nated the European Neonatal Network (EuroNeoNet)comprising 205 NICUs from 20 countries, was presidentof the European Society for Paediatric Research andorganised biannual neonatology symposia in Bilbao.

His scientific curiosity and enthusiasm, generosity,warmth, unique charm and charisma made Adolf a veryspecial neonatologist. He inspired many. His many inter-national collaborators were proud to be counted among hisclose friends and miss him greatly.

Helmut Hummler1, Agueda Azpeitia Garcia2,Marina Cuttini3, Michael Weindling4

1.Clinic of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, UniversityChildren’s Hospital Ulm, Ulm, Germany

2.EuroNeoStat / EuroNeoNet Hospital de Cruces, Bilbao,Spain

3.Unit of Epidemiology, Bambino Ges�u OspedalePediatrico, Rome, Italy

4.University of Liverpool, Honorary ConsultantNeonatologist, Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Trust,

Liverpool, UK

568 ª2014 Foundation Acta Pædiatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2014 103, p. 568

Acta Pædiatrica ISSN 0803-5253