Associate Professor at the Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada,
Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona (Spain)
2011 – 2016 “Ramon y Cajal” researcher, University of Barcelona, Spain.
2008 – 2011 Post-doc: University of Barcelona, Spain
2006 – 2008 Post-doc: Florida State University, USA
2003 – 2006 Ph.D.: University of Ulm, Germany
2002 – 2003 Predoctoral Marie Curie fellowship
B.S.: University of Napoli, Italy
Lothar Schulte studied Geography, Geology and Economic History at the Univ. Düsseldorf and Univ. Cologne, and obtained his Ph.D. in 2000 at the Univ. of Barcelona. His thesis on Quaternary landscape evolution received the national award on Quaternary Science and Geomorphology. In 2000 he was contracted by the University of Barcelona as Assistant Professor giving lectures in Natural Hazards, Geomorphology, Global change, etc. Between 2001 and 2002, he was Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Postdoc fellow and Lecturer at the University of Bern. In 2006, he was appointed Associate Professor and, in 2017, Full-Professor. Since 2006, he has acted as Principal Investigator of the PaleoRisk Research Group. In 2011 and 2019, he received the ICREA Academy Award. Since 2008, he has participated in the evaluation processes of the DFG 806 CRC, DFG, AEI, AQU, IGS and FWO. Since 2018, he has been the coordinator of the Floods Working Group of the international network Past Global Changes.
Dr Antoni Torres is full profesor of Medicine (Pulmonology) at University of Barcelona. He has been Director and Chief of Pulmonology Department, and Director of the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. He leads a translational research group focussed on respiratory infections, ARDS and critical care. His current H-Index is 95. He received several research awards: Edward Shanoff (Harvard University), Josep Trueta, Lilly award, COMB, Icrea Academia, and Murray Korndfel (ACCP).
Antonio Zorzano is Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona, Group Leader at the IRB Barcelona, and Programme Head at CIBERDEM. Professor Zorzano received his PhD in Biology at the University of Barcelona, and did postdoctoral studies at the Hospital Ramon y Cajal, (Madrid), and at Boston University Medical Center. He has supervised 40 Ph.D. theses, is co-inventor of 21 patents, and has published over 300 scientific articles (more than 31,000 citations, h-index of 82, Google Scholar). He has been founder of biotechnological companies in Spain and in UK.
Professor Zorzano’s research focuses on the regulation of metabolism and its interplay with insulin resistance, obesity and type 2 diabetes. A global goal is to identify and validate molecular targets that permit the prevention or treatment of metabolic diseases by using cell-based systems, genetically modified mice, and translational approaches.
My scientific career is fully associated with the direction of my research group, which I started in the mid 90’s, after my previous training in Barcelona, Paris and New York. Since then I have developed an upward research career as PI, financed through competitive funds obtained from public agencies, foundations and private companies. We have participated in numerous European projects and led regional, national and international research networks on the pathophysiological mechanisms of obesity, diabetes and lipodystrophy, including research on the metabolic alterations in HIV patients. I am full professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UB since 2010. I act as advisor of multiple international research agencies and institutions. I have been director of the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB for 8 years, where I currently hold the position of scientific director. I have been member of steering committees of the CIBERobn and Sociedad Española de Estudio de la Obesidad.
Noemí Pereda (Barcelona, 1975) obtained her BSc in Psychology at the Universitat de Barcelona, where she also obtained her PhD (Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award) in 2006. She was a visiting researcher in the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, where she understood the importance of building a culture of evidence in violence research. She became an Associate Professor at the Universitat de Barcelona, where she leads the ‘Grup de Recerca en Victimització Infantil i Adolescent’ (GReVIA). She serves as temporary adviser for the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe for the study of child and adolescent victimization in Spain. She is also a member of the Catalan Ombudsman’s Advisory Council for the ‘Prevenció de la Tortura i altres Tractes o Penes Cruels, Inhumans o Degradants’. She provides in-service training for practitioners on violence against children sponsored by the Spanish and Catalan Governments.
Modesto Orozco was born in Barcelona in 1962, obtained BS in Chemistry (1985), MS in Biochemistry (1988) and Ph.D. in Chemistry (1990) at the University of Barcelona. Assistant Professor (1989), Professor (1991) and Full Professor (2001) at the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Barcelona. He was visiting professor at Yale University 1991-1993. Since 2004 he is Group Leader at the Institut for Research in Biomedicine, since 2005 Director of the Life Sciences Department at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, from 2006-2013 was the director of the Joint IRB-BSC Program on Computational Biology, and since 2014 director of the Joint BSC-CRG-IRB Program on Computational Biology. Director Integrative Research Nodes. IRB Barcelona.
Dr. Felix Ritort got his PhD in 1991 in spin glasses. Since then he has made contributions to the field of disordered systems and nonequilibrium physics. In 2002 he made a turn in his career working in single-molecule biophysics to investigate energy processes in the molecular world. Ritort’s group is recognized worldwide as leader in applying the finest and most powerful methods to extract accurate quantitative information about thermodynamics and kinetics of molecular interactions in nucleic acids and proteins. He has been awarded several prizes for his research: Distinció de la Generalitat de Catalunya in 2001 for his research during the years 1991-2000; ICREA Academia Awards 2008,2013,2018 for his research as scholar at the University of Barcelona; Premio Bruker 2013 from the Sociedad de Biofísica de España for his contributions to molecular biophysics research in Spain. He is chair of the Division of Physics for Life Sciences of the European Physical Society.
Prof. J. Daniel Prades is a Full Professor of Electronic Technology at the Universitat de Barcelona. He has published 90 scientific articles (4000+ citations, h-index 35), and has given 35 invited talks in international conferences. He has coordinated 30 Research Projects and Grants on device development, smart system integration and environmental monitoring; including 11 European/International Projects, 19 National Projects and other Projects with Industry. He is co-inventor of 9 patents, 2 of them under commercial exploitation. In 2018, he founded “ColorSensing” https://www.color-sensing.com, a start-up based in Catalonia devoted to smart packaging for food processing efficiency, quality, and safety. He is the EuroSensors Fellow 2017 and ICREA Academia awardee since 2018.
Pere Roca-Cusachs obtained his PhD in cellular biophysics in 2007 from the Medical School at the University of Barcelona. He then worked in the lab of Prof. Michael Sheetz (Columbia University) as a post-doctoral researcher until 2011. He is currently a Serra-Hunter Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona, and Group Leader at the Institute for bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). His group studies the physical and molecular mechanisms by which cells detect and respond to mechanical signals. He currently coordinates an EU-funded Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) project dedicated to understanding the mechanical control of biological function. He is a recipient of the EMBO Young Investigator award, the 2017 City of Barcelona award to the life sciences, and the 2019 Young Investigator Award of the European Biophysical Societies Association (EBSA). He is also an EMBO member.