A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

74

September 2014

The Minister for Economy and Knowledge, Andreu Mas-Colell,¹ has appointed Lluís Torner Sabata as chairman of the AQU's Research Assessment Commission, to take over from Joan Rodés Teixidor, and Joan Nogué Font as chairman of AQU's CLiC Commission (that deals with tenure-track and collaborating teaching staff), to take over from Maria Lluïsa Hernanz Carbó.

Lluís Torner Sabata graduated in Physical Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), he has a doctoral degree from UPC/BarcelonaTech and has been a Professor at UPC since 2000. He was a post-doctoral researcher and collaborated with various universities in the United States, and he has been director of the Institute of Photonic Science (ICFO) since 2002 when the institute was founded. His academic activities have focused on research and training in the applications of photonics in different fields. In particular, he is a leading researcher in the study of optical solitons and their applications in information technologies. He received the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya)'s Award for the Promotion of University Research as a young researcher in 2000.

Joan Nogué Font is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Girona and Director of the Catalan Landscape Observatory (Observatori del Paisatge de Catalunya). He was awarded a doctoral degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and went on to study at the University of Wisconsin in Madison (US). He was associate lecturer at the University of Western Ontario (Canada) and visiting professor at various foreign universities. He specialises in cultural landscape studies, geographical thought and planning, he is co-director of the Paisaje y Teoría (Landscape and Theory) book collection published by Biblioteca Nueva, and he contributes to the La Vanguardia newspaper's 'Cultura' supplement. He was the director of the International Seminar on Landscape at Menéndez Pelayo International University, and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Girona from 1996 until 2004. He was awarded the Jaume I Award for Town Planning, Landscape and Sustainability in 2009.

In addition, Esther Giménez-Salinas (Ramon Llull University) and Josep Eladi Baños (Pompeu Fabra University) have been appointed members of the AQU Catalunya Board of Management to take over from Enric Argullol Murgadas (Pompeu Fabra University) and Gemma Rigau Oliver (Autonomous University of Barcelona/UAB).

¹ Article 146.2.a) of Law 1/2003, 19 February, lays down that the chairperson of the Research Assessment Commission shall be appointed by the incumbent of the Catalan government’s department responsible for universities from candidates with outstanding merits in science; article 145.2.a) of Law 1/2003, 19 February, lays down that the chairperson of the CLiC Commission (that deals with tenure-track and collaborating teaching staff) shall be appointed by the incumbent of the Catalan government’s department responsible for universities from candidates with outstanding academic merits; article 142.2.e) of Law 1/2003, 19 February, concerning the universities in Catalonia, stipulates that three members of the AQU Catalunya Board of Management shall be eminent individuals from the academic community appointed by the incumbent of the Catalan government’s department responsible for universities.