The ICREAs

ICREA Research Professors form a vibrant community of scientists and researchers in all areas of knowledge that contribute to the advancement of humankind by exploring, interpreting and questioning. Have a look and learn about their amazing discoveries and findings here:

Rosenkranz, Sven

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

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Rosenkranz, Sven
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Humanities
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Research interests

Sven's main research interests lie in metaphysics and epistemology. He is particularly interested in realism, objectivity, fallibility, the logic of justification, epistemic paradoxes, the limits of thought and knowledge (if any), and the philosophy of time and existence. Recently, Sven published a co-authored monograph on tensed theories of time with Springer. His latest book, Justification as Ignorance, concerns the nature and logic of epistemic justification and was published by Oxford University Press in 2021.

Key words
Epistemology, Metaphysics and Philosophy of Language

ORCID
: 0000-0003-1663-3171
Rossi, Barbara

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

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Rossi, Barbara
Research Professor at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Social & Behavioural Sciences
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Research interests

Specializing in time series econometrics and empirical applications in international finance and macroeconomics, her current research has both a theoretical and an empirical focus. It encompasses theoretical analyses of the forecasting ability of economic models as well as model selection in the presence of instabilities. Her empirical works range from model comparisons of DSGE models, forecasting exchange rates, purchasing power parity analysis, to impulse response functions. She teaches applied time series econometrics as well as graduate econometrics and macroeconometrics courses.

Key words
Economics, Time Series Econometrics, Macroeconometrics
Rovira Virgili, Carme

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

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Rovira Virgili, Carme
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

The research at Dr. Rovira's group is focused on the computer simulation of biological processes at atomic-electronic detail, i.e. using computers to understand how biomolecules work. Her goal is to simulate the molecular mechanisms underlying ligand-protein interactions and enzymatic reactions, guiding the design of more efficient enzymes and drugs. Her research is currently focused on unveiling chemical reactions in glycoprocessing enzymes for biomedical and biotechnological applications.

Key words
molecular modeling - ab initio molecular dynamics - heme proteins - glycobiology

ORCID
: 0000-0003-1477-5010

RESEARCHER ID
: K-5195-2014
Rubiés Mirabet, Joan-Pau

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

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Rubiés Mirabet, Joan-Pau
Research Professor at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Humanities
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Research interests

I am a historian specialized in the study of cross-cultural encounters in the early modern world, from a perspective combining the contextual analysis of ethnographic sources with the intellectual history of early modern Europe. My focus in the last few years has been analyzing early modern ethnography and its intellectual impact in the period 1500-1800. This has involved developing various parallel lines of analysis, including travel writing, cross-cultural diplomacy, religious missions, early orientalism, race and racism, and the history of cosmopolitanism. A growing concern has been to develop a global comparative perspective on these various topics (including Asia and the New World) that might help interrogate critically the eurocentric categories of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. I coordinate the Research Grup on Ethnographies, Cultural Encounters and Religious Missions in the Iberian World (ECERM) at UPF, which has received funding from the ERC, AGAUR (SGR) and MINECO.

Key words
History, Cultural Encounters

ORCID
: 0000-0002-8644-0204

RESEARCHER ID
: H-7493-2015
Ruiz Trillo, Iñaki

Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC - IBE)

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Ruiz Trillo, Iñaki
Research Professor at
Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC - IBE)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests

The lab addresses one of the most important evolutionary transitions in the history of life: the origins of multicellularity. To this aim, we focus on the origin of multicellular animals. We perform comparative and functional genomic analyses between animals and their closest unicellular relatives. We reconstruct the nature of the unicellular ancestor that gave rise to animals. We have also developed the first "functional platform" to address animal origins, establishing several new model organisms specific to this question. Finally, we also unravel the hidden diversity of eukaryotes using metabarcoding data.

Key words
genomics, phylogenomics, evolutionary biology, multicellularity, Metazoa, protists

ORCID
: 0000-0001-6547-5304

RESEARCHER ID
: C-1360-2008
Ruprecht, Verena

Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG)

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Ruprecht, Verena
Research Professor at
Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests

Our research is motivated by the fundamental question how the complex multicellular architecture of our body is robustly established and maintained from a single fertilized cell. This requires to understand how dynamic processes at the single level are controlled by mechanical, physical and biochemical information in the tissue environment and how they instruct cellular behaviour and cell fate. We combine various methods from physics, biology and engineering to gather quantitative data and build mathematical models of cell and tissue dynamics.

We recently identified a mechano-transduction pathway in the nucleus that controls cell mechanics and migration (Venturini et al. Science 2020), offering new insight how cells adapt to shape changes. We also found that vertebrate embryos can trigger an innate immune response via epithelial phagocytosis, enabling cellular error correction in the earliest stages of development (Hoijman et al. Nature 2021).

Key words
Single Cell and Multicellular Systems Dynamics, Embryogenesis, Mechanobiology, Cell Migration, Phagocytosis, Biological Self-organization, Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy, Bioengineering, Synthetic Biology

ORCID
: 0000-0003-4088-8633

RESEARCHER ID
: H-7563-2017