September 9th – 09/09/09 – is the symbolic date set by the University of Barcelona for the introduction of its new bachelor’s degrees. After a period marked by the progressive implementation of the university master’s courses, the most important feature of the new academic year is the launch of 49 new bachelor’s degrees which have all been evaluated and accepted by Spain’s Council of Universities.

Identifying and producing plant compounds for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases is the aim of the project “Plant terpenoids for human health: a chemical and genomic approach to identify and produce bioactive compounds” (TERPMED), funded by the 7th Framework Program of the EU. The project is coordinated by the Research Group in the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Isoprenoids at the UB, headed by professors Albert Ferrer and Albert Boronat of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculties of Pharmacy and Biology.

We often create false memories of situations, particularly childhood experiences. Even when situations actually occurred, they might only be remembered because they have been narrated many times. The creation of false memories is a well-known and well-defined area of study, particularly in the legal sector, where it has a major impact on the statements given by witnesses and victims in courts.

On Wednesday 10 June, Dídac Ramírez, Rector of the UB, and Olivier Christin, Rector of the Lumière University (Lyon II) signed a collaboration agreement concerning the development of the MINERVA program (Mobility of Teaching and Research Institutions for the Creation of a European Teaching Area) in the fields of Spanish economy and law.

The early stages of the process by which massive stars are formed are governed by the interstellar magnetic fields, in a process similar to the formation of stars like the Sun. A paper on the subject has recently been published in Science, co-authored by the researcher Robert Estalella of the Department of Astronomy and Meteorology. Massive stars (stars that are more massive than 8 solar masses) represent only 1% of our galaxy; however, they dominate the appearance and evolution of the interstellar medium and are responsible for the production of heavy elements.

The University of Barcelona is again the only university in Spain to figure among the world’s top 200 universities according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2008. The international league table of institutions of higher education, published annually by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ranks the University of Barcelona in 167th position, up three places on last year’s standing.

“When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle', as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species—that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers.”

At 12.15 on Monday, 9 March, the new web site “The sounds of Catalan” was presented in the Aula Magna of the UB Historic Building, by Joan Solà, professor of Catalan Philology at the UB, and by the lecturers Josefina Carrera and Clàudia Pons. The event was presided over by Amelia Díaz, Vice-rector for Teaching and European Convergence, Adolfo Sotelo, Dean of the Faculty of Philology, and Sebastià Bonet, Head of the Department of Catalan Philology.

The University of Barcelona’s Agency of Valorisation and Commercialisation of Research Results (AVCRI), has recently signed two exclusive licence agreements with the French firm CEERAM, the European Centre for Expertise and Research on Microbial Agents. Under these agreements, CEERAM will have the right to commercially exploit the two patents. The patents are the result of the work by UB researchers Dr Albert Bosch and Dr Rosa M. Pintó at the Department of Microbiology at the Faculty of Biology.

The tunnel effect of magnetization, a highly unusual property of the world of quantum mechanics discovered by the Magnetism Group of the Department of Fundamental Physics at the UB, led by Professor Javier Tejada (Castejón, 1948), in cooperation with groups from the City University of New York and the firm Xerox, has been acknowledged as one of the milestones in the study of spin of the twentieth century in the special collection Milestones in Spin, published by the leading scientific journal Nature.

Professor Dídac Ramírez, who was elected Rector of the UB last 11 November, officially took up his new position at 9 am on 27 November. The ceremony was presided over by Josep Huguet, Catalan Minister of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise; Blanca Palmada, Commissioner for Universities and Innovation of the Catalan government, and Professor Màrius Rubiralta, former Rector of the UB and Spanish Secretary of State for Universities.  

On 3 October, the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation celebrated its 25th birthday with a commemorative event presided over by the Secretary of State for Universities, the Minister for Innovation, Universities and Enterprise of the Catalan government, and the Acting Rector of the University of Barcelona. The meeting brought together the worlds of the university and Catalan business. 

Dídac Ramírez has been elected rector of the University of Barcelona after obtaining 53.45% of the weighted votes in the second round of voting, held on Tuesday, 11 November. The other candidate, Josep Samitier, obtained 46.55% of the weighted vote. SEE PHOTOS

Tracking the migration of Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), researchers have demonstrated that these birds follow wind highways to cover long distances. These flyways follow a very precise route and, moreover, are only accessible during very specific periods of time. The authors of the study, which was published in the journal PlosOne, are Jacob González-Solís, professor at the Department of Animal Biology at the University of Barcelona, Ángel Felicísimo (Universidad de Extremadura) and Jesús Muñoz (Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC).

The UB’s Governing Council has announced that the first round of voting to elect the new Rector will be held on 6 November. In accordance with the Universities Act and the UB Statutes, the vote will be universal, free, and secret. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority on 6 November, a second round of voting will be held on 11 November. 

The UB has published a special issue of its magazine La Universitat in English in order to promote the University on a broader international stage. The magazine will be distributed among prominent visitors from abroad when they visit the UB and among participants at the European University Association’s Spring Conference which is being held in the Historic Building until 29 March. The magazine will also be used by members of the UB when travelling abroad as a means of introducing the University to a wider audience.

Classes for academic year 2008-2009 began on 15 September at the UB’s faculties and schools. This will be the last year in which only first and second cycle degrees will be taught; next year, with the implementation of the Bologna process, the format of the undergraduate degrees is due to change. In fact the UB already offers 115 official master’s degrees which are adapted to the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and 68 doctoral programs, 57 of which are also adapted to the EHEA.

“The pathologist is like a detective, deciphering the morphological clues to arrive at the correct solution”
Elaine Jaffe, director of the Pathology Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute of the US National Health Institutes in Bethesda, MD, and an expert in pathology and hematooncology, has been awarded an honorary doctorate at a ceremony presided over by Dr Josep Samitier, acting rector of the UB. Dr Jaffe was sponsored by Elías Campo, professor of pathology at the Department of Pathological Anatomy, Pharmacology and Microbiology of the Faculty of Medicine, and also director of the Centre for Clinical and Biomedical Diagnosis at the Hospital Clínic, Barcelona.

On Monday 21 April, Dr Josep Samitier i Martí was formally named Acting Rector to succeed Dr Màrius Rubiralta. During the extraordinary meeting of the Governing Council which preceded this appointment, it was agreed that the elections to the Rectorate at the UB should be called during the first half of September, and held during the second half of October.

The Rector of the UB, Dr Màrius Rubiralta, has accepted the offer of the new Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, to become Secretary of State for Universities. Dr Rubiralta has informed the President of the Social Council of the UB and his management team of his decision. In the next few hours, the UB will decide what changes this appointment implies in relation to the governance of the University. An extraordinary governing council meeting is expected to be held in the next few days.

The UB has published a special issue of its magazine La Universitat in English in order to promote the University on a broader international stage. The magazine will be distributed among prominent visitors from abroad when they visit the UB and among participants at the European University Association’s Spring Conference which is being held in the Historic Building until 29 March. The magazine will also be used by members of the UB when travelling abroad as a means of introducing the University to a wider audience.

Graça Machel, the chairman of the GAVI Fund Board, the funding arm of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), and winner of the Príncipe de Asturias Prize for International Cooperation in 1998, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the UB. The degree ceremony will be held at 12 noon on 23 April in the Paranimf of the University’s Historic Building. Graça Machel, founder and president of the Fundaçao para o Desenvolvimiento da Comunidade (FDC), is a reference point all over the world for her defence of the rights of children and women. During the ceremony she will be sponsored by Professor Pedro L. Alonso of the UB’s Department of Public Health.

During March 27- 29, the University of Barcelona is hosting the Spring Conference of the European University Association (EUA) , bringing together 350 rectors from European universities, as well as vice-rectors and management personnel, to address central issues arising from the theme of the conference, “The Governance of European Universities post-2010 (II): Enhancing Institutional Missions and Profiles”.

To mark the 125th anniversary of the 1st International Polar Year, the UB has carried out a research project in the north of the Arctic Circle to study natural climate change and the evolution of the Arctic continental margin.
More than 8,600 km2 of ocean floor mapped, 31 metres of ocean sediment extracted and almost 3,345 nautical miles of navigation through Arctic waters… These are some of the details recorded in the log of the SVAIS expedition for the International Polar Year (IPY), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.

A study published on Sunday 19 July in the electronic version of the journal Science has revealed new data about the mechanism by which some people naturally maintain the AIDS virus (HIV) at barely detectable levels while in others it quickly develops beyond control. The article is the result of international collaboration between researchers in Europe, Australia and the United States and is based on a large-scale study of genetic differences between patients infected with HIV. This is the first research study of its type to be published in the field of infectious diseases.

A study published on Sunday 19 July in the electronic version of the journal Science has revealed new data about the mechanism by which some people naturally maintain the AIDS virus (HIV) at barely detectable levels while in others it quickly develops beyond control. The article is the result of international collaboration between researchers in Europe, Australia and the United States and is based on a large-scale study of genetic differences between patients infected with HIV. This is the first research study of its type to be published in the field of infectious diseases.

The journal Science publishes this week a study which shows that the Zaire strain of Ebola virus (ZEBOV) is the most common cause of death in populations of large apes, principally gorillas and chimpanzees, in the Lossi wildlife sanctuary, situated in the north-east of the Republic of the Congo ( Brazzaville ). From a nest census over an area of 5,000 km 2 it is estimated that ZEBOV has killed a total of 5,000 gorillas.

The beginning of the 4th International Polar Year (IPY) was officially announced in Paris in March. The IPY comprises an ambitious program of international research that will run until 2009 to promote the study of the polar regions of our planet, the Arctic and the Antarctic. It draws on the traditions of the previous editions of the International Polar Year (1882 and 1932) and the International Geophysical Year (1957).

The most breathtaking gypsum crystals ever found are located in Naica, Mexico. Found at 290m of depth in the Cueva de los Cristales, they form giant columns of selenite, measuring up to 11m in length, and have posed numerous questions to geologists since their discovery in 2000. 

Risto Näätänen, a renowned expert in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, was awarded an honorary doctorate on Friday, 23 March, at a midday event officiated by UB Rector Màrius Rubiralta in the UB’s Paranimf.  During the ceremony, Dr Carles Escera of the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology at the UB’s Psychology Faculty, acted as Prof Näätänen’s sponsor.

BRD grants (Beques de Recerca i Docència): training grants for research and teaching are awarded by the University of Barcelona for the 2007-2008 academic year. The aim of these grants is to support
researchers preparing their PhD theses and to promote training in teaching methodologies by involving them in practical teaching tasks in university departments. For further information, consult:
www.ub.edu/acad/beques/3rcicle/ub/bfrd/extract.pdf

The Diagonal Campus, located at one of the gateways to the city of Barcelona , is home to the greatest concentration of research and knowledge in Southern Europe . The site is currently being reorganised and new buildings are being constructed for the different faculties and services to help to improve the visibility and efficiency of the campus, which is to be known as the Gateway to Knowledge.

The UB is the only Spanish university to appear on the list of the world’s 200 best universities published by the specialist British paper, The Times Higher Education Supplement.

Coinciding with the establishment of the Agency for Assessing and Marketing Research Results (AVCRI), the Universitat de Barcelona (UB, University of Barcelona) presents its knowledge and technology Transfer Portal.

The musician Jordi Savall was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the UB on Monday 27 November, during a ceremony held in the University’s Paranimf and presided over by the rector, Màrius Rubiralta.

Carlos Cordón Cardó, one of the world’s leading experts in the field of cancer research, was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the UB on 9 November at noon in the Paranimf of the UB. At the ceremony, presided over by the rector, Màrius Rubiralta, Carlos Cordón was sponsored by Professor Antonio Manuel Ballesta Gimeno from the Department of Physiological Sciences.

How do massive stars originate in the Universe? Are they the result of the processes of gravitational collapse and gas and dust accretion? The discovery of a collapse adjacent to the luminous massive star G24.78+0.08 A1,

As much as 110 million years ago, spiders were already weaving complex webs to trap and feed on flying insects. This is confirmed by the discovery of a fragment of spider’s web with adhering insects in a transparent amber stalactite found in Escucha (Teruel).

Last year, three potholers discovered a small cave in a cliff near Ferreries in Minorca, in the Balearic Islands.

The binary system LS I +61 303 is the first microquasar in our Galaxy in which variable very high energy gamma-ray emission has been found. The discovery was reported in Science magazine on 18 May.

The Catalonia BioRegion was officially presented at the Palace of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The BioRegion will coordinate biotech activities in order to promote this sector in the Catalan economy and to establish Catalonia as an international reference point in this field.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is a non-profit organization which promotes scientific activity on an international scale. It was founded in 1953, on the basis of an existing institution that had been set up in Berlin in 1860 in memory of the renowned German naturalist.

Monday 27 February saw the beginning of the celebrations to mark the centenary of the UB's Faculty of Medicine and the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, two of Spain's most important teaching, research and health care centres and two of the city's most emblematic institutions.

The UN has 400 depository libraries all over the world. One of them is housed in the library of the UB Law Faculty. These libraries hold official documents issued by the UN's main bodies (the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, among others).