- Dr Marta Shahbazi, 41, was on her way to collect a scientific excellence award when two trains collided near Urda, killing at least 69 people
MADRID 1 November 2026 (Agencies) – An award-winning University of Cambridge researcher died in the Spanish train disaster while on her way to collect a prize for scientific excellence.
Dr Marta Shahbazi, 41, was travelling to an awards ceremony on Wednesday when the train she was on crashed into another near Urda, south of Madrid, killing at least 69 people. A state-operated Renfe high-speed train ran into the back of a stationary train operated by the Iryo company between Los Yébenes and Urda, in the province of Toledo, on the Madrid-Seville route. The regional government of Castilla-La Mancha said the Iryo train was carrying 146 passengers and an infant, while 397 people were on board the Renfe train. Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, said a computer glitch on Wednesday morning had stopped six trains on the tracks, including the two involved in the crash. The cause of the collision is under investigation.
Dr Shahbazi was an affiliate associate professor who led a group of researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and had earned several awards for her work on human embryos and cell biology. She ran the Shahbazi Laboratory at the institute, which is based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. She had been announced as the winner of an award from the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology for her contributions to the study of early human development, and was due to collect it at a conference in El Rompido in Andalusia.
In a statement, the laboratory paid tribute to an “inspiring, talented and passionate scientist” and described her death as “a profound shock and a huge loss”. It said her research had shed light on the earliest steps in the development of human embryos and on how errors occur that lead to failed pregnancies, and that her work had been recognised with many awards and prizes. “As a wife and mother of two young children, Marta wrote eloquently about balancing her family and career, serving as a much-admired role model for a ‘mother scientist’, a term she used to describe herself,” the laboratory said. Her children are aged three and seven.
News of her death was first confirmed in a social media post by CiMUS, the research centre in Santiago de Compostela where her aunt, the researcher María José Alonso, works. The centre described her as a brilliant young researcher. Dr Shahbazi did her PhD at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre before joining the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral fellow, and then the laboratory in 2020.
The crash is one of the worst rail disasters in Europe’s modern history and Spain’s worst since 2013. Spain declared three days of national mourning.