Professors Narcís Prat and Albert Bosch, honored by the Association of Biologists of Catalonia (CBC)

The experts awarded by the Association of Biologists of Catalonia (CBC).
The experts awarded by the Association of Biologists of Catalonia (CBC).
Research
(25/04/2017)

Professors Narcís Prat and Albert Bosch, from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona, have been awarded by the Association of Biologists of Catalonia (CBC), which this year has awarded the professional career of several experts in the field of biology. The award ceremony took place on April 25, a day the CBC regards as the “Biologist Day”, to remember the day in 1953 when the scientists James Watson and Francis Crick published -in the journal Nature- the article on the DNA structure that altered the world of genetics. 

The experts awarded by the Association of Biologists of Catalonia (CBC).
The experts awarded by the Association of Biologists of Catalonia (CBC).
Research
25/04/2017

Professors Narcís Prat and Albert Bosch, from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona, have been awarded by the Association of Biologists of Catalonia (CBC), which this year has awarded the professional career of several experts in the field of biology. The award ceremony took place on April 25, a day the CBC regards as the “Biologist Day”, to remember the day in 1953 when the scientists James Watson and Francis Crick published -in the journal Nature- the article on the DNA structure that altered the world of genetics. 

 

In the event, that took place in the Hotel Catalonia Eixample, other experts have been  distinguished as honorary members: Arcadi Navarro (UPF) and Anna Veiga (Center of Regenerative Medicine of Barcelona). In the category of Bioentrepreneurs, the awardee was Jordi Sánchez, graduated at the UB and member of SUBMON -a platform of marine environmental services that works on projects in the field of preservation, study and dissemination of the marine environment- and the experts Nina Bosch, Núria Capdevila, Clara Serra and Irene Valenzuela, from the company INFOGENIA, focused on diagnostic technologies and genetic assessment. In the course of the event, to be opened by the vice-dean of the CBC, Margarita Salvador, the lecture “La dendrocronologia: Dels anells dels arbres als processos ecològics” was read by Emilia Gutiérrez, from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona.  During the ceremony, a tribute was paid to the biologist Emili Fadurdo, Dean of the CBC since 2010 who recently passed away.

 

Narcís Prat, awarded for his professional career

Narcís Prat, head of the Research Group Freshwater Ecology and Management (FEM) from the University of Barcelona, has been awarded for his professional career in the CBC. This is a shared award with Ferran Navarro (UAB and Hospital de Sant Pau). Prat, professor of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences at the Faculty of Biology, is a prestigious expert in the field of river ecology and has fully contributed to define a new water management model in Spain. Founding member of the New Water Culture Foundation, he is the coordinator of the European project LIFE TRivers, aiming to bring new tools to properly diagnose the ecological state of temporary rivers and improve its management according to the aims of the EU Water Framework Directive.

Awarded with the 3rd Distinction of the UB to the best dissemination activities on science and humanities, Prat is co-author of the work Ramon Margalef, ecólogo de la biosfera (Publications and Editions of the University of Barcelona, 2015), a volume jointly written with Joandomènec Ros and Francesc Peters. The book, edited with the sponsorship of Agbar Foundation, is the scientific bibliography of the UB professor, the international Spanish ecologist with most projection, commemorating the tenth anniversary of his death.



Research award to Professor Albert Bosch

Albert Bosch, professor from the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics of the UB, received the award from the CBC in the category of research, together with the cardiologist Jose Manuel Soria, from the Hospital de Sant Pau of Barcelona. Bosch, president of the Spanish Society for Virology since 2013, led the former Department of Microbiology from 2001 to 2006.
Expert in molecular, clinical, environmental and food virology, he is the head of the Consolidated Research Group (GRC) of Enteric Viruses of the UB, a team with an outstanding experience in the study of human viruses that infect the digestive tract, such as the virus in hepatitis A and other pathogen agents that cause gastroenteritis (astrovirus, norovirus, rotavirus, etc.). Distinguished for the research lines set in the fields of environmental microbiology and biotechnology, it was the first university laboratory in Spain to receive the certificate of good laboratory practices (BPL) for virus safety.

President of the International Society for Food and Environmental Virology since 2012, Bosch is also member of the American Society of Virology (ASV), the Group of Food Virologists of the World Health Organization, the New York Academy of Sciences and the Royal European Academy of Doctors, among other entities. He has also worked in centers such as the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, the University of North Carolina and the University of Arizona (United States), the University of Pretoria (South Africa), and the London Institute of Child Health (United Kingdom).