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:

Valcárcel Juárez, Juan

Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG)

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Valcárcel Juárez, Juan
Research Professor at
Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests

The genome provides the instructions to build and maintain the function of a living organism. Strangely, in complex organisms these instructions are not written as continuous messages, but rather as smaller pieces interrupted by meaningless text. This arrangement has the advantage that the pieces can be combined in different ways to generate alternative instructions. We study the molecular machinery that puts messages together and how the production of alternative messages is regulated.

Key words
RNA processing, gene regulation

ORCID
: 0000-0001-5398-3571

RESEARCHER ID
: O-9814-2014
Valencia Herrera, Alfonso

Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS)

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Valencia Herrera, Alfonso
Research Professor at
Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests

His research interest is the development of Computational Biology methods and their application to biomedical problems. Some of the computational methods he developed are considered pioneering work in areas such as biological text mining, protein coevolution, disease networks and more recently modelling cellular systems (digital twins). He participates in some of the key cancer related international consortia. In terms of community services, he is one of the initial promoters of what is now the ELIXIR infrastructure, founder of the Spanish Bioinformatics network and founder member and former president of ISCB the professional association of Bioinformaticians and the Executive Editor of the main journal in the field (Bioinformatics OUP).

Key words
Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Precision Medicine, Genomics, Text Mining, Cognitive Computing

ORCID
: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8937-6789

RESEARCHER ID
: I-3127-2015
Valenzuela, Sergio O.

Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2)

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Valenzuela, Sergio O.
Research Professor at
Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2)
Engineering Sciences
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Research interests

In recent years, electronic devices have been scaled down to nanoscale sizes where quantum effects begin to interfere with their functioning. Materials and devices in such scales often present unexpected and counterintuitive physical properties. Prof. Valenzuela's Group focus is the development of novel devices, which are designed to gain insight of specific physical properties of the system components, relevant both for fundamental reasons and applications at the nanoscale. The current research interests of the group span spintronics, spin caloritronics, quantum transport and manipulation, using 2D materials and topological insulators, and quantum metrology. For more information see: http://nanodevices.icn2.cat.

Key words
Spintronics, magnetism, quantum computing.
van den Bergh, Jeroen

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

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van den Bergh, Jeroen
Research Professor at
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Social & Behavioural Sciences
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Research interests

I work on the interface of environmental economics, climate-policy research, and innovation studies. Research in recent years focuses on effectiveness and public support of climate policy. This accounts for undesirable systemic impacts, such as energy rebound and carbon leakage. It involves application of methods and insights from behavioural and evolutionary economics, operationalized through agent-based modelling, questionnaire surveys and online experiments. Past work covered integrated ecological-economic modelling, contributions to the growth-versus-environment debate, environmental policies applied to urban-transport issues, biodiversity valuation and policy, modelling of recycling in material-product chains, and international dimensions of environmental policy.

Key words
Environmental and resource economics | Energy and climate economics | Environmental science and ecological economics | Evolutionary economics and innovation studies | Spatial (regional, transport and urban) economics.

ORCID
: 0000-0003-3415-3083

RESEARCHER ID
: C-7103-2008
van Hulst, Niek F.

Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO)

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van Hulst, Niek F.
Research Professor at
Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO)
Engineering Sciences
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Research interests

My current interest is to control light interaction at the nanometer scale. To this end, my group specializes on optical antennas, with nanoscale hot spots, and on coherent control schemes to command light on the "femto-nano" scale. We study individual molecules, quantum dots and single proteins, in strong interaction with nanoantenna-cavities and sub-10-fs pulses; controlling excitation-emission rates, direction, spectra, polarization, single photon character. We focus particularly on transport and coupling in single light-harvesting antenna complexes at native conditions, to unravel the efficiency and robustness of energy conversion in such natural molecular antennas. At ICFO I aim to stimulate young researchers, towards well-rooted skilled scientists and assertive critical thinkers, ready to shape their future and sustain the world. To reflect & recharge, I like to touch ground in the Massis del Garraf, rambling between Mediterranean waters and Catalan winefields.

Key words
NanoPhotonics, Single Molecules, Optical Antennas, Molecular Photonics, Quantum Coherence, Coherent Control, Energy Transfer

ORCID
: 0000-0003-4630-1776

RESEARCHER ID
: J-2121-2012
Verde, Licia

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

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Verde, Licia
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

I am interested in Cosmology, which is the study of the origin, evolution and composition of the universe. One of the recent discoveries in cosmology is that more than 70% of what makes up the universe is not even matter, but something that suggests that some energy is associated with the nothingness of vacuum: "dark energy". Dark energy may as well be one of the major problems in physics today and is motivating a host of future and planned experiments. I study the "large-scale distribution of galaxies", their statistical properties and how the emerge and evolve from the Universe's initial conditions, which can be gleaned from the statistical properties of the heat left over from the big bang. These observations are used to shed light on the Universe composition, including the dark energy component, the Universe's history and evolution and ultimately the physics governing it.

Key words
Cosmology: large-scale structure of the Universe, interpretation of cosmological data, connection between theory and observations

ORCID
: 0000-0003-2601-8770