He is the first researcher in Spain to receive this European recognition in its more than thirty years of history. Fundamental factors in the award were his long professional career and his research on the effects of environmental and food pollutants on human health.

Josep Lluís Domingo, professor emeritus of the URV, has been presented with the prestigious Eurotox Merit Award, the most important European award in toxicology. Domingo is the first researcher in the state to receive a recognition that has been awarded since 1992. Eurotox, the federation that brings together European state toxicology societies, has valued his long professional career, extensive list of publications, and contribution to the understanding of the effects of environmental and food pollutants on human health. The award will be presented during the 57th Eurotox Congress, which will be held in September in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

“Being recognised in this way is a great satisfaction, because it is a recognition of the work I have been doing for so many years. It is not at all easy, because the competition is very strong: there are researchers from very powerful countries and institutions, and not many awards are granted”, says Josep Lluís Domingo, who is more than happy to share the award with the URV, the university where he has spent his entire professional career: “There are often opportunities to leave, but it has always been clear that this is where I belong. If you work hard, are motivated and want to make progress in your research, you do not have to be in a large university to be recognised. I’m very happy to help increase the reputation of the URV. It is a stimulus for all researchers and for the university so that we continue feeding off each other and growing together.”

Josep Lluís Domingo is a professor of Toxicology and Environmental Health at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the URV, and founder of TecnATox, Centre for Environmental, Food and Toxicological Technology, specialised in research on innovation and technology transfer in the fields of food, environment and toxicology. He works in the field of environmental and food pollutants, and their potential risks and benefits for the health of the population and the environment. His research focuses on environmental technologies, risk assessment and communication, toxicology, environmental health, food safety, and information and communication technologies.

For the past nine years, Josep Lluís Domingo has been editor-in-chief of the prestigious journal Environmental Research, a journal of the Elsevier group to which 12,000 articles are submitted annually. He had also been editor-in-chief of Food and Chemical Toxicology and Human and Ecological Risk Assessment and he is among the most cited researchers in the world. His name is on the Highly Cited Researchers list, which identifies the most cited scientists from each scientific field from among the top one per cent of most cited articles annually. Domingo is also one of the most cited researchers in Europe in his speciality and occupies the first position by h-index in Spain.