Professor Albert Casas, appointed Dean of the Faculty of Earth Sciences

M. Teresa Calvet, Albert Casas, Jaume Pous (Head of Studies for the bachelor degree in Geological Engineering) and Xavier Delclòs.
M. Teresa Calvet, Albert Casas, Jaume Pous (Head of Studies for the bachelor degree in Geological Engineering) and Xavier Delclòs.
Institutional
(08/02/2017)

Professor Albert Casas, from the Department of Mineralogy, Petrology and Applied Geology of the University of Barcelona, took office as Dean of the Faculty of Earth Sciences in an event which took place in the Sala de Juntes room of the Rectorʼs Office, in the Historical Building, on February 7, 2017.

M. Teresa Calvet, Albert Casas, Jaume Pous (Head of Studies for the bachelor degree in Geological Engineering) and Xavier Delclòs.
M. Teresa Calvet, Albert Casas, Jaume Pous (Head of Studies for the bachelor degree in Geological Engineering) and Xavier Delclòs.
Institutional
08/02/2017

Professor Albert Casas, from the Department of Mineralogy, Petrology and Applied Geology of the University of Barcelona, took office as Dean of the Faculty of Earth Sciences in an event which took place in the Sala de Juntes room of the Rectorʼs Office, in the Historical Building, on February 7, 2017.

 

Graduate and doctor in Geological Sciences from the University of Barcelona in 1980, Albert Casas is an expert on geophysical prospecting, and leads the Consolidated Research Group on Economic, Environmental and Hydrological Geology of the UB. Casas was vice-dean of the Faculty (1981-1986), director of the previous Department of Geochemistry, Petrology and Geological Prospecting (1986-1990 and 1997-2003) and vice-rector for Scientific Policy of the University of Barcelona from 2003 to 2005. He coordinated the Ibero-American Thematic Network on Environmental Geophysics of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and has presided the Near Surface Geosciences Division of the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE), among others. More recently, he presided the scientific and organizing committee of the 22nd European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, held in Barcelona in September 2016.


The new dean has promoted several research lines on geophysical prospection using gravimetric, magnetic, seismic and electromagnetic methods. He has published more than 150 articles in scientific journals and has been the main researcher of several research projects in contest calls of international projection in Europe, South America and North Africa in fields that cover prospection of hydrocarbons, minerals, groundwater, etc. Regarding social projection of research activity, he has led several projects on geophysical prospection in emblematic archaeological sites such as the findings of the base of a temple from 1st Century AC honoring the Emperor August, under the cathedral of Tarragona.


The new dean completes the governing team of the Faculty of Earth Sciences together with M. Teresa Calvet Pallás as vice-dean; Xavier Delclòs Martínez as secretary, and Antoni Calafat Frau and Miguel Garcés Crespo as deputies with specific functions, equal to a vice-deanʼs.


Some of the priorities of the new team of the Deanʼs Office are, in particular, to keep the excellent level of the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona in the fields of research and education, as seen in all indicators; to promote international relations and service to the country, and face the necessary renovation and stabilization of the academic and services staff.


M. Teresa Calvet, vice-dean-to-be in the new team of the Deanʼs Office, is a tenured lecturer from the Department of Mineralogy, Petrology and Applied Geology. Expert in the fields of polymorphismʼs crystallographic and thermodynamic characterization and solid miscibility of different material, she coordinates the Research Group on Crystallography and Group of Molecular Alloys. The secretary-academic is Xavier Delclòs, tenured lecturer from the Department of Earth and Ocean dynamics and member of the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) and Consolidated Research Group on Sedimentary Geology. Expert on the study field of paleobiology of continental environment (arthropods and especially fossil insects), he is member of the International Palaeontological Association.


Antoni M. Calafat, one of the deputies in the new team of the Deanʼs Office, is a tenured lecturer from the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics and member of the Consolidated Research Group on Marine Geosciences. He focuses his research on the relation between sedimentology and biochemistry flows, distribution and sedimentation of particles in the water column and its geochemical characterization, in the study areas of the eastern and western Mediterranean, Canary islands, Antarctica and the Arctic. Another deputy is Miguel Garcés, tenured-track 2 lecturer from the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics and is part of the Research Group on Geodynamics and Basin Analysis and member of the Geomodels Research Institute of the University of Barcelona. Expert on the different uses of paleomagnetism in Earth Sciences, he leads research projects about magnetostratigraphy dating and interpretation of sedimentary records, and promoted the laboratory of Paleomagnetism (CCiTUB-CSIC) in Barcelona.