short vita of J. MARTIN RAMIREZ
<mramirez@med.ucm.es>
Born in Madrid, in which University he studied Medicine, Philosophy and Arts, and Law.
He is doctor in Medicine and Surgery (Neuroscience) and in Philosophy (Education), and has
a Master in High Studies on Defense.
He has worked in:
a) Comparative Education, in the European Schools of the European Union;
b) Neuropsychology, in the Free University of Berlín and Stanford University;
c) Psychobiology, in the Universities of Ruhr in Bochum, Autónoma Madrid, Seville,and
Complutense Madrid, as well as in the Laboratory of Ethology in the Centre Ramón y Cajal in
Madrid.
d) National Defense (Spanish militar university CESEDEN) and International Security
(Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Visiting
Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University)
At present, he works at the Institute for Biofunctional Studies and the Department of
Psycobiology of the Universidad Complutense Madrid. He is the head of its Research Group on
Sociopsychobiology of Aggression.
His main scientífic field of interest, since more than thirty five years ago, is the research on
aggression, from an interdisciplinary prospective. He has studied it in very different animal
species, from birds to primates, and, within the human species, in quite different cultures
(Europe, Iran, Japan, Southern Africa, and Canada).
He is a member of the ISRA (International Society for Research on Aggression), been Official
of its Council, as well as a member of its Mass Media and United Nations Committees, as a NG
counseller. He also belongs to other international scientific societies, such as Society of
Neurosciencies, International Society of Comparative Psychology, American Association of
Psychology, Psychonomic Society, New York Academy of Sciencies, Society for Terrorism
Research, and chair of the Spanish National Pugwash Group, Nobel Prize for Peace 1995. At
the present, he acts as Chairman of the CICAs (International Colloquia on Conflict and
Aggression),. with more than 30 scientific meetings in different countries of Europe, Asia,
America and Africa.
He has being awarded with the Europe Prize (1971), Academy of Medicine and Surgery of
Murcia Prize (1976), Royal Spanish Academy of Medicine and Surgery Prize (1981), as well as
a Professional Award on international conflicts by the East-West Center established by the
United States Congress (1985). Since 2005 he is also UPF Ambassador for Peace.
Guest Editor of two issues of the International Journal of Neuroscience and of another ones in
the Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Terrorism Research, the International Journal of
Organisational Transformation and Social Change, Open Criminology Journal and Open
Psychology Journal. Prof. Martin Ramirez is also member of the Editorial Council of the
International Journal on World Peace, of the International Journal of Comparative Psychology,
Terrorism & Political Aggression, Open Criminology Journal, and of the International Journal of
Evolutionary Psychology.
Among his more than 400 scientific publications, he has written, co-authored or edited about
thirty books, including: La Escuela Europea; Ultraestructura de las arteriolas cerebrales;
Einführung in die Anthropobiologie: Grundriss für Psychologen und Pädagogen; Cerebro, Mente
y Holograma, and Cerebro y Conciencia (both with Karl Pribram); La función cortical; Vida,
Ambiente y Biología; Aggression: functions and causes and Cross-disciplinary studies on
Aggression (both with Paul Brain); Biología y Personalidad; Research on Aggression; Essays on
Violence (with Robert Hinde and Jo Groebel); Aggression in Children (with Lea Pulkinnen);
Violence: some alternatives; Neuropsiquiatría de la conducta agresiva (with José H. Peñaloza),
De la agresión a la guerra nuclear (with Antonio F. Rañada), Agresión; un enfoque
psicobiológico; Cross-cultural Approaches to Aggression and Reconciliation (with Deborah
Richardson); Human Aggression: a multifaceted phenomenon; Interdisciplinary Analyses of
Terrorism (with Antonius, Brown, Walters, & Sinclair), and Radicalization, Terrorism, and
Conflict (with Walters, & Monaghan).
His proudest achievement has probably been the Saeville Statement on Violence, signed in
1986 by more than twenty scholars from all the continents, and endorsed by the Conference
General of UNESCO in 1989.
While on sabbatical in this academic year 2010-2011, he gave a series of lectures and
addresses on aggression, violence and terrorism throughout Finland (Vasa), Germany (Bonn,
Munich, Berlin), Hungary (Budapest), Poland (Warsaw and Gdansk), Colombia (Cartagena de
Indias) and USA (Storrs, CT, San Fracisco, Irvine, and Stanford, CA).
SOME PUBLICATIONS OF J. MARTIN RAMIREZ DURING THE LAST 5 YEARS
J. Martin Ramirez, J. M. Alvarado & C. Santisteban Individual differences in anger reaction
to noise. Individual Differences Research. 2004, 2(2): 125-136
J. Martin Ramirez, Marie-Claude Bonniot-Cabanac, Michel Cabanac. Can aggression
provide pleasure? European Psychologist 2005; Vol. 10, No. 2, 136-145
J. Martin Ramirez, J.M. Andreu, Aggression, and some related psychological constructs
(Anger, Hostility, and Impulsivity): comments from a research project Neuroscience and
Biobehavioural Reviews, 2006, 30 (3): 276-291
Paloma Rohlfs & J. Martín Ramírez Aggression and Brain Asymmetries: A Theoretical
Review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, (2006), 11(3):283-297
Francisco Montañes Rada, J. Martin Ramirez, & M.T. De Lucas-Taracena Violence in
Mental Disorders and Community Sample. An evolutionary model related with
dominance in social relationships. Medical Hypotheses (2006) 67:930-940
Ramírez, J. M. (2007). Justification of Aggression in several Asian and European Countries
with different Religious and Cultural Background. International Journal of Behavioral
Development, 31(1), Serial No. 51: 9-15
Ramírez, J. M. Televisión y Violencia. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 2007, volumen
39, No. 2, 327-349
Ramírez, J. M. (2007). Peace through dialogue. International Journal on World Peace, 24 (1),
65-81
M. E. Peña, J. M. Andreu, J.L. Graña, F. Pahlavan & J.M. Ramirez. Moderate and severe
aggression justification in instrumental and reactive contexts. Social Behavior &
Personality, 2008, 36 (2), 229-238
Michel Cabanac, J. Martín Ramírez, Luis Millana, Maria P. Toldos-Romero, & M.-Claude
Bonniot-Cabanac, (2008). The Pleasure of Aggressiveness Among Inmates in
Preventive and LongTerm Detention. The Open Criminology Journal, 2008, 1 (2), 19-26
José Julián Javela, J. Martin Ramirez, Roberto Mercadillo. Anger and Associated Experiences
of Sadness, Fear, Valence, Arousal, and Dominance Evoked by Visual Scenes.
Psychological Reports. (2008), 103: 665-681
J. Martin Ramirez, J.M. Andreu, (2009). The main sympthoms of the AHA-syndrome:
relationships between anger, hostility and aggression in a normal population. In: Swati
Bhave and Sunil Saini (eds.). Anger Hostility and Aggression- AHA Syndrome!
Relationship with cardiac diseases and Prevention by life style intervention Anamaya
Publishers, New Delhi, India, pp 16-29 <http://www.ikbooks.com/>www.ikbooks.com
Ramirez, J.M. (2009), Some dychotomous classifications of aggression according to its
function, Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change 6: 2, pp. 85–101
J. Martin Ramirez & Tali K. Walters (2009). Aggression, Terrorism and Human Rights.
Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, Volume 1 Issue 3, 219-237
Daniel Antonius, Adam D. Brown, Tali K. Walters, J. Martin Ramirez, Samuel Justin Sinclair
(eds.). Interdisciplinary Analyses of Terrorism. Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2010).
Jordan Maile, Tali K. Walters, J. Martin Ramírez, and Daniel Antonius, Aggression in
Terrorism (2010). In: Daniel Antonius, Adam D. Brown, Tali K. Walters, J. Martin Ramirez,
Samuel Justin Sinclair (eds.). Interdisciplinary Analyses of Terrorism. Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, pp 22-48
Miguel Bettin, J. Martin Ramirez & Tali K. Walters, (eds.) Aggression, Political Violence, and
Terrorism, Cartagena de Indias: CICA/STR (2010)
J. Martin Ramírez, The usefulness of distinguishing types of aggression by function,
International Social Science Journal. Volume 61, Issue 200-201, 2010, 263-272, translated into
six languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian)
J. Martin Ramírez, The Ulster Peace Process as an experience of peacebuilding, Behavioral
Sciences on Terrorism and Violence, 3, 1, 2011, 72–76