On 28 July the Catalan Government awarded this medal to 16 individuals and 3 institutions. The medal recognises the scientific and technological work of people and entities that have made a major contribution to the development of science and technology in Catalonia

Joan Maria Thomàs is an ICREA Acadèmia research and full university professor of Contemporary History at the URV. He graduates in Contemporary History from the University of Barcelona and gained his doctorate in the same field from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He has worked as a visiting researcher and professor at universities around the world.

He has received the Barclona City Prize for History and the “Serra d’Or” Prize for Criticism, and he is the principal researcher on the research prject “United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Japan and their relations with Spain during the Second World War and the postwar period (1939-1953): new perspectives”.

He has written ten books as the sole author, two of which have been translated into English, fourteen as the joint author, and nineteen articles. He conducts his research through the consolidated research group Ideologies and Society in Contemporary Catalonia (ISOCAC), he is a member of the editorial committees of various publications and belongs to historical associations around the world. His main research lines are fascism, Francoism, the Spanish Civil War, relations between the USA and Spain during the Spanish Civil War, the history of the United States and the European and Asian trade in strategic materials with Nazi Germany, the Second World War and the Post War Period.

The Narcís Monturiol Medal was created in 1982 and this year has also been awarded to a further fifteen individuals: Ramon Bacardit, Jaume Bertranpetit, Artur Bladé, Martine Bosman, Françoise Breton, Marta Cascante, Miquel Duran, Jordi Galí, Antonio Gens, Jaume Llibre, Xavier Matias-Guiu, Antoni Oliva, Josep Rizo, David Serrat ans Isabel Vernos.

It has also been awarded to three institutions: the Centre for Demographic Studies, the Catalan Consortium of University Libraries and the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of Barcelona. The last URV professor to receive the Medal was Josep Domingo, professor of Computer Sciences and Artificial Intelligence and director the UNESCO Chair for Data Privacy of the URV in 2012.