The Catalan government ratifies Josep A. Planell's appointment as the new president of the UOC
The Catalan government agreed this morning to ratify the appointment of Professor Josep A. Planell as the new president of the UOC, as proposed by the Board of Trustees of the Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Foundation for the Open University of Catalonia, FUOC) on 11 March and following his audience with the Advisory Board. The only thing now remaining to make his appointment official is for the decision to be published in the DOGC, the official gazette of the Catalan government. This will mark the end of a selection process that began a year ago.
From this moment on, Planell will take the reins as the new president of the UOC, for a maximum period of seven years. He takes over from Imma Tubella, who completes her time in office as set out in the Statutes that she herself championed. He will, thus, become the UOC's third president, following in the footsteps of Gabriel Ferraté (1995-2005) and the aforementioned Imma Tubella (2005-2012).
The inauguration ceremony will take place at the UOC's headquarters on Avinguda Tibidabo on 3 April.
Director of an internationally renowned research centre
Josep A. Planell Estany (born Barcelona, 1951) graduated in Physics from the University of Barcelona in 1975 and earned his doctorate in Materials Science from Queen Mary, University of London in 1983. Since 1992 he has been full professor in the Materials Science and Metallurgy department of the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Dr Planell is currently Director of the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), established in December 2005 and linked to the UPC.
In 2001 he was awarded with the Catalan government's Distinction for the Promotion of University Research. He has been member of the Catalan Royal Academy of Doctors since 2006 and is an elected member of Barcelona's Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2006 he received the City of Barcelona award, in the technological research category.
He has also been Vice President of the European Society for Biomaterials, editor of the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine and is or has been member of the editorial board of numerous scientific journals.
Dr Planell's main research interests are biomaterials and tissue engineering for regenerative therapies.
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