Biography
Antoni Giró Roca
Rector of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech (UPC)
Antoni Giró Roca was born in Reus in 1949 and is married. He holds a bachelor's degree and a doctoral degree in Physical Science from the University of Barcelona. He is a professor of Applied Physics at the UPC. He has taught at Rovira i Virgili University (1971-77), at the University of Barcelona (1978-82), and at the UPC (since 1983).
In the research field, he has worked to strengthen a research group that has done pioneering work on computer simulation applications for studying the atomic behaviour of condensed systems using the molecular dynamics method. The group has also worked on the simulation of ecosystems using the Monte Carlo method. He is currently working on discrete modelling and simulation of microbial systems and on their application in agri-food engineering.
He has been involved in 27 research projects—including CIRIT, CICYT, DGICYT and EU projects (Esprit, Science, HCM)—15 of which he directed. He has published some seventy research papers, most of which appeared in specialised international journals, and has been a speaker at over a hundred scientific conferences. He has undertaken research visits and stays at various universities, both in Spain and abroad (France, Netherlands, Germany and the UK).
In the field of university management, he has served as vice-dean and dean of the Barcelona School of Informatics, head of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, vice-rector for Research and vice-rector for Academic Staff at the UPC. He was also the chairman of the Catalan Physics Society, a branch of the Institute of Catalan Studies, for ten years.
He was a member of the Government of Catalonia for over seven years. His first appointment was as director general for Research and vice-chairman of the Committee for Research and Technological Innovation (CIRIT). He later served as director general of Universities at the Ministry of Universities, Research and the Information Society.
In July 2009, his was one of the voices recognised in the UNESCO publication "100 Voices: A Decade of Inspiration and Achievements in Higher Education", in which one hundred prominent international figures from the world of politics and academia give their views on the role of higher education in addressing global challenges.
He has been rector of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech (UPC) since March 2006 and is currently serving his second term in the post..
As the rector of the UPC, he served as chairman of the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) from October 2006 to April 2011. He was also chairman of the Vives University Network (October 2010 to April 2011), and in October 2011 he was elected to serve a two-year term as the chairman of CINDA, a network of Latin American universities.
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