Kepa Altonaga Sustatxa

Loiu (Bizkaia),1958.

He spent the first years of his childhood in Txorierri (Bizkaia) before moving to Bilbao. He graduated in Biology (1980) and shortly afterwards started lecturing at the Science Faculty of the EHU-University of the Basque Country.

By that time he had taken his first steps in the field of research by examining the characteristics of slugs and snails; with other members of the research team he completed some projects on the distribution and taxonomy of malacofauna on the Iberian Peninsula.

This work enabled him to obtain a PhD in 1988. In connection with this his research team was awarded the Munibe Prize by the Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community in 1992. As a young man he became interested in the Basque language and culture through his reading of Caro Baroja and has been a member of the UEU-Udako Euskal Unibertsitatea (Basque Summer University) since 1978. He was its Director from 1992 to 1995.

In 1996 he was awarded the C.A.F. prize for his work entitled Folin markesa. Marraskiloak eta euskaldunak uharte galduan. In 1999 he received the same award for his book Armand David pandaren aita.

He has collaborated with UZEI, Elhuyar and the Euskaltzaindia (Royal Academy of the Basque Language).

In 2003 he was made an associate member of the Euskaltzaindia.