History

The Plant Physiology unit was created as an independent Department, in 1949, with the original name ‘Department of Plant Anatomy, Plant Physiology and Applied Botany’. Dr. Arturo Caballero López, its first chair, was also its director until he retired in 1989..

The Department was in the ‘Pati de Ciències’ (Sciences Courtyard), at the old UB building. For more than 30 years both research and teaching were done in there, even though a relevant part of the research activities (in that time, highly focused in plant production and crop ecophysiology) was done in the Experimental Fields of the University of Barcelona.

‘Pati de Ciències’ (Sciences’ courtyard) of the University of Barcelona, where the Department was placed for more than 30 years.

Experimental fields with the Margalef building behind, where it is now located the Plant Physiology Unit

In 1983, the Faculty of Biology moved to its new building (recently renamed as ‘Ramon Margalef’ building), and so did the Department, which took its current facilities. At that time, the research plus teaching topics of the Department had already been fixed in Plant Physiology, Applied Botany, Soil Science and Phytopathology.

The re-design of the structure of the universities, which was imposed by new directives aimed to avoiding the proliferation of too small, poorly operative departments, drove the Plant Physiology Department to joint that of Botany, in a unique department which was named ‘Plant Biology Department’. However, within this new structure both the old Plant Physiology Department and the old Botany Department maintained its own, separate identity, as autonomous functional units.

Device designed to study photosynthesis in controlled laboratory conditions. Year 1977.

Photosynthesis analyzer presently used to estimate net photosynthetic rates of whole plants

Throughout its history, both teaching and research in the Plant Physiology Unit evolved with the changes in this discipline all over the world. In recent years, research lines related to plant genomics, plant molecular biology and plant biotechnology have acquired a recognized status, but the most traditional research lines have been also maintained: plant ecophysiology, crop production and photosynthesis in field conditions. Also, the staff of the Unit continues the research lines related to parallel disciplines: soil-plant relationships, control of plant diseases and pathogens, and soil ecology.