The José Manuel Blecua Prize has been won by the researcher Marta Recasens Potau for her article "Identity, non-identity, and near-identity: Addressing the complexity of coreference", published in the journal Lingua, which is extremely influential in its field. The article focuses on discourse analysis and computational linguistics. The jury particularly stressed the value of the article's theoretical content, according to which the correlation between two linguistic expressions and a single object is in fact scalar, and not a dichotomous relationship, as previously thought. This theoretical assertion is supported by a neatly designed empirical analysis.
The Ramon Margalef Prize has been awarded to the researcher Jorge Echeverría López for the article "Dihydrogen contacts in alkanes are subtle but not faint", published in the high-impact journal Nature Chemistry. The article examines the interactions between carbon-hydrogen groups in organic compounds and concludes that, under certain conditions, they can be much stronger than previously thought, which can significantly alter the physicochemical properties and melting points of the molecules. The jury was particularly impressed by the theoretical contribution of the article to its field - it explains a phenomen about which little had been known until now and which could lead to applications in other fields - and also valued the empirical research. The article is given greater weight by the prestige of the journal in which it was published.
For the first time, this year the Ramon Margalef Award includes a second prize, which has been awarded to the researcher Gemma Navarro Brugal for the article "Detection of heteromerization of more than two proteins by sequential BRET-FRET", which was published in the journal Nature Methods. The article describes a new technique for the detection of protein-protein interactions. The jury highlighted the valuable methodological contribution of the study, as the detection of interactions between three proteins had always been considered vitally important but no technique capable of doing so had been developed. Following its publication in a high impact-factor journal from the Nature group, the article has also been extensively cited in other work.
Board of Trustees and Bosch i Gimpera Awards
The Antoni Caparrós Prize has been awarded for the project "Espai Laboratori: Àmbit de Ciència dʼArts Santa Mònica" created by Josep Perelló, from the UB's Department of Fundamental Physics. The innovative, cross-disciplinary project was carried out under the framework of an agreement between the UB and Arts Santa Mònica. The initiative was launched in 2009 and has strengthened the link between scientific research and artistic creativity through new themes and content, new creative tools and innovative languages of artistic expression. The exhibitions organized to date as part of the project have been extremely well received by the public, and some have been temporarily transferred to spaces in other countries. The laboratory is currently hosting the exhibition "Camps invisibles. Geografies de les ones ràdio", which is accompanied by a series of specific activities and workshops for school children and the general public.
The Senén Vilaró Prize has been won by Enantia, SL, a company founded in 2003 and one of the first spin-offs with UB funding through the company 'Cultura Innovadora i Científica'. Enantia, which has been overseen by advisors at the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation since it was founded, was one of the five companies based at the Barcelona Science Park's first Bioincubator. The company operates in the fine chemistry sector and has maintained its original mixed business model: it offers services in the field of organic synthesis and uses the proceeds from these activities to fund the development of novel technology for subsequent commercial exploitation. Figures suggest that the model has been an unequivocal success: 30 patent requests, 41 contracted researchers in 2011 and a forecast turnover of 3,750,000 euros.
The Board of Trustees and Bosch i Gimpera Foundation Awards have a number of aims: to support the valorization of the knowledge acquired through university study and research; to give recognition to the importance of knowledge and technology transfer and innovation projects; to encourage the creation of innovative knowledge-based companies; to give greater visibility to innovative capacity at the UB; and to promote entrepreneurial spirit in the university community.
