Jordi Torra, professor of Astrophysics and one of the leaders in the Gaia mission, passed away
On Tuesday, February 26, Jordi Torra, professor of the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics of the University of Barcelona, passed away. Member of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the UB (ICCUB), Torra was one of the Euopean precursors in the development of space astrometry and leader of the Spanish team in the Gaia mission.
On Tuesday, February 26, Jordi Torra, professor of the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics of the University of Barcelona, passed away. Member of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the UB (ICCUB), Torra was one of the Euopean precursors in the development of space astrometry and leader of the Spanish team in the Gaia mission.
Jordi Torra (Barcelona, 1949-2019) focused his research career on the study of the structure, formation and evolution of our galaxy, the Milky Way. In the eighties, he started leading the Spanish participation in the astrometry mission Hipparcos, from the European Space Agency (ESA), and joined the Gaia mission in 1997. Gaia would launch the satellite with the same name in 2013 and would continue operating. He led the Gaia team at the UB, where more than fifty professionals have been trained over the last twenty years. Torra also participated in other space missions, such as the optical camera for the satellite OMC@INTEGRAL, the SMART-2 mission, and more recently, the definition of new astrometry missions of the ESA, such as NEAT, THEIA and GaiaNIR.
A lover of astronomic observation and with experience in the use of telescopes, he collaborated in the development of new instrumentation for the Gran Telescopio Canarias. Also, he was one of the promoters of the creation of the Montsec Astronomical Park and the Centre for Observing the Universe (Lleida), the two biggest infrastructures on astronomic observation and dissemination in Catalonia.
In education, he supervised nine doctoral theses, and in transfer technology, he founded the first spin-off by the University of Barcelona and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Dapcom Data Services.
Regarding scientific management he was the manager of the National Plan on Astronomy and Astrophysics (2007-2011), member of the commission in charge of Spain joining the European Southern Observatory (2006), coordinator of the Spanish Astronomy Infrastructure Network (2012-2017) and director of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (2015-2017) and one of the launchers of the first Law on light pollution by the Generalitat de Catalunya. He was honoured with several awards such as Premi Ciutat de Barcelona in science and technology (2013) and he was recently awarded the Narcís Monturiol Medal (2018).