The professor of Computational Science and a URV ICREA researcher, Josep Domingo-Ferrer, has been appointed the new academic director of the Serra Húnter Plan, for recruiting and retaining excellent teaching staff by applying international criteria for the Catalan universities

The candidacy of Domingo-Ferrer has been given the explicit support of all the rectors of the Catalan universities, in the framework of the Board of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC), which met on Monday 14 December.

Josep Domingo-Ferrer (Sabadell, 1965) is director of the UNESCO Chair for Data Privacy and the URV’s Department of Computer Engineering and Mathematics. He is taking part in the project Human Brain – in which hundreds of scientists from 112 institutions in 24 countries are working – as a member of ELSA (Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects Committee).

As an expert in the privacy and security of data, and specifically in the creation of technologies to reconcile security, privacy and functionality in the information society, Domingo-Ferrer coordinates one of the leading teams in security and privacy: CONSOLIDER “ARES”.

The new director of the Serra Húnter Plan has been a member of the Academia Europaea since 2012, the year he was also awarded the Narcís Monturiol medal for scientific and technological merit. In 2011 he was appointed Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Domingo-Ferrer is the author of 5 patents and more than 350 scientific publications. He has presided over 15 international congresses and he has been a member of the organizing committees of 220 others.

Domingo-Ferrer’s experience makes him the ideal person to direct this plan, which expects to select more than 500 new lecturers before 2020 using criteria of international excellence. It is funded by the Catalan Government and all of the seven Catalan public universities (UB, UAB, UPC, UPF, UdL, UdG and URV).