Awards Ceremony of the Social Council of the University of Barcelona and the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation
On Tuesday, December 16 at six in the afternoon, the awards ceremony of the XXI Social Council Awards of the University of Barcelona and the XVIII Bosch i Gimpera Foundation Awards will take place.
The Aula Magna of the Historical Building will host the ceremony, which honours high-quality research carried out by young researchers, as well as cases of knowledge transfer and social impact generated at the University of Barcelona.
A digital corpus of more than 3,000 texts to study Ramon Llull’s most famous literary metaphor
The José Manuel Blecua Award, granted to the best article published in a journal recognized in the field of humanities and social sciences, will be awarded to a research project that analyses more than 3,000 fragments of the work of Ramon Llull to study his most famous metaphor: that of the friend and the beloved, which expresses the relationship between human beings and God.
The research, led by Dr. Arnau Vives, professor at the Faculty of Philology and Communication, was published in the article “Una nova interpretació de la imatge lul·liana de l’amic i l’amat a partir de la seva diacronia: metàfora, tema i símbol” in Magnificat. Cultura i Literatura Medievals. During the research, Vives created the Corpus Digital d’Amic i Amat (CDAIA), currently hosted in the Ramon Llull Database, managed by the Ramon Llull Documentation Centre of the UB.
Discovery of a new type of quantum magnetism
The Ramon Margalef Award, aimed at the best research published in a journal recognized in the field of experimental and health sciences derived from a doctoral thesis, will be given to Dr. Ivan Morera for the discovery of a new type of quantum magnetism: kinetic magnetism. Conventional magnetism occurs naturally in materials such as iron and its properties are difficult to modify, whereas kinetic magnetism can be created in a laboratory through the administration of electric charges. This is a discovery with relevant technological implications. The awarded article, titled “Kinetic magnetism in triangular moiré materials”, was published in Nature.
New immunotherapy for multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer
This year, the jury has decided to grant an honourable mention of the Ramon Margalef Award to Dr. Aina Oliver Nova for research on immunotherapy for multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer. Specifically, it is a clinical trial of a more cost-effective and faster-to-produce CAR-T treatment. The research was published in The Lancet Oncology under the title “Fractionated initial infusion and booster dose of ARI0002h, a humanised, BCMA-directed CAR T-cell therapy, for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (CARTBCMA-HCB-01): a single-arm, multicentre, academic pilot study”.
Study on adolescent violence in Spain
The Antoni Caparrós Award, dedicated to the best knowledge, technology and innovation transfer project, will be awarded to two proposals. The jury has selected the first nationwide study analysing victimisation and violence among adolescents in Spain. The research provides insight into the impact of violence experienced and exercised, with the aim of generating useful knowledge for policies, protocols and prevention programmes.
The winning project is titled “Does violence breed violence? Overlap between victims and aggressors among Spanish adolescents”, led by Dr. Noemí Pereda, professor at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Barcelona.
A super-resolution microscope
The second proposal receiving the Antoni Caparrós Award is by Dr. Mario Montes, professor at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona, for the project “Super-resolution SIM microscope based on acousto-optic devices”.
The project has developed a programmable fluorescence microscopy system based on acousto-optic devices that control lasers with high precision and speed, allowing the generation of complex illumination patterns in real time and improving SIM super-resolution microscopy. The technology is versatile and has strong potential for biomedical research.
Device for monitoring patients with stents
The company Nimble Diagnostics will receive the Senén Vilaró Award for the best innovative company developed within the UB. Nimble Diagnostics has created a non-invasive, non-ionising medical device for monitoring patients with implanted stents. The technology works similarly to an ultrasound and detects stent dysfunctions within seconds without surgery or radiation, improving prevention and monitoring of cardiovascular patients. This pioneering, precise and safe technology reduces risks, costs and time, and enables personalised treatment management.
Nimble Diagnostics is also a spin-off of the Germans Trias i Pujol Institute and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
<< The event can also be followed live through this link.