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 was travelling to an awards ceremony on Wednesday when the train she was on crashed into another near Urda, south of Madrid, killing 69 people.

The mother of two was an affiliate associate professor leading a group of researchers at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge and had earned several awards for work on human embryos and cell biology.

In a statement, the LMB paid tribute to the "inspiring, talented and passionate scientist" and described her death as a "profound shock and a huge loss".

The expert in cell biology ran the Shahbazi Laboratory at the LMB, based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

She had been announced as the winner of a Spanish Society for Developmental Biology award for her contributions to the study of early human development and was due to collect the award at a conference in El Rompido in…