1999
Carlos Lopez Lois
Industrial Engineer, UPC-Barcelona, 1992
Ph.D., UPC-Barcelona, 1998
Postdoctoral Fellow, 1999-2000
Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Irvine
Advisor: Professor W. Recker
Presently: Director of Mobility Planning, City of Barcelona
Carlos Lopez Lois was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1967. He obtained the degree of Mechanical Engineer at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 1992. Starting in 1993, he held various technical positions at an engineering company which designed logistics systems. He later joined the faculty of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and simultaneously attended the Postgraduate Transportation Program, receiving his Ph.D. with the “Cum Laude” mention in February 1998. The title of his thesis was “Establishment of a new heuristic model for the dynamic traffic assignment problem”. He is presently an Associate Professor (equivalent of Assistant Professor in the U.S.) of Transportation at UPC. He has also worked as a part time engineer at Nissan Motor Iberica, testing the performance of new designs, conducting comparative analysis and also as a trainee at various deparments such as logistics, finances, etc. In August 1999, he was awarded the first Balsells Postdoctoral Fellowship to spend a year at the University of California, Irvine. He joined the Institute of Transportation Studies to conduct research in logistics, intelligent traffic systems and mass transit transportation.
2001
Marc Medrano Martorell
Chemical Engineer, URV-Tarragona, 1996
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, URV, 2001
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2002-04
Advanced Power and Energy Program
Advisor: Professor G. S. Samuelsen
Presently: Associate Professor, University of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
Marc Medrano Martorell was born in Tarragona, Catalonia (Spain), in 1973. In 1996, he obtained a degree in Chemistry with a major in Chemical Engineering at the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona, Catalonia (Spain). Prior to this, he worked at BASF S.A. (Tarragona) and Hoechst A.G. (Frankfurt, Germany) as a summer trainee. He received a training-researcher fellowship from the Catalan government to join the Department of Mechanical Engineering and attend the Graduate Chemical Engineering Program. He carried out his doctoral research at the Center of Technological Innovation in Heat Upgrading and Refrigeration ( CREVER ) and received his Ph.D. with a “Cum Laude” mention in March 2001. In August 2001, he was awarded a Balsells Postdoctoral Fellowship to spend a year at the University of California, Irvine. He joined the Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP, http://www.apep.uci.edu/ ) to conduct research in building integration of advanced distributed power systems, emphasizing waste heat recovery for heating and absorption air conditioning. He likes reading, mountain walking and playing basketball and squash.
2003
Angel Jimenez Aranda
Mathematics, UAB, Barcelona, 1998
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, URV-Tarragona, 2003
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2003-2006
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Chemistry,
Advisor: Professor D. Dabdub
MBA; ESADE, URL, 2008
Presently: NHS, Sheffield, UK
Angel Jimenez-Aranda was born in Tarragona in 1976. In 1998 he graduated from the School of Sciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), obtaining a degree in Mathematics. He received a training-researcher fellowship from the University Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona) to join the Department of Mechanical Engineering and attend the Graduate Chemical Engineering Program. In September 2000, he obtained the Research Proficiency and in September 2002 the Advanced Studies Diploma (DEA). In July 2003, he received his Ph.D. with a “Cum Laude” mention with the thesis “Interaction between flow structures and mass transport: Application to a turbulent plane jet”. In September 2003, he was awarded a Balsells Postdoctoral Fellowship to join the Research Group of Prof. Donald Dabdub at the University of California, Irvine. He likes playing soccer, reading and travelling.
2004
Miquel Nogués Aymamí
Mechanical Engineer, UPC-Terrassa, 1992
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, URV-Tarragona, 2001
Postdoctoral Fellow, Advanced Power and Energy Program
Advisor: Professor G. S. Samuelsen
Presently: Lecturer, University of Lleida
Miquel Nogués Aymamí was born in Almoster, Catalonia (Spain) in 1968. In 1995, he graduated from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Terrassa (ETSEIT) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), obtaining the degree of Industrial Engineer with a specialization in Mechanical Engineering. From August 1992 until 1995, he worked during the startup and commissioning of both high-speed can production lines 1 and 2 in the facility of National Can Ibérica Catalunya S.A. located in La Selva del Camp (Tarragona). He carried out his doctoral research at the Center of Technological Innovation in Heat Upgrading and Refrigeration (CREVER). His dissertation was titled “Development of an Absorption Heat Pump Using Organic Mixtures and Plate Heat Exchangers” and he received his Ph.D. Cum Laude in July 2001. Since December 2001, Dr. Miquel Nogués served as a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in Escola Politècnica Superior of the Universitat de Lleida (UdL), teaching Mechanism Analysis and other related Mechanical Engineering topics. At the same time, he was also member of the research group called Grup de Recerca en Enginyeria Aplicada (GREA). In the summer of 2003, he spent two months testing and commissioning a novel absorption unit driven by solar energy in the Bayerisches Zemtrum fur Angewandte energieforschung E.V. (ZAE) located in Garching (Germany). In November of 2004, Dr. Nogués was awarded a Balsells Postdoctoral Fellowship to spend a year in the Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP) at the University of California, Irvine to conduct research in building integration of advanced distributed power systems, emphasizing waste heat recovery for heating and absorption air conditioning. He enjoys listening music, traveling, DIY (do it yourself) and skiing.
2005
Raul Benitez
Ph.D., Physics, UPC
Postdoctoral fellow, Biomedical Engineering 2005-06
Advisor: Professor D. J. Reinkensmeyer
Presently: Associate Professor, EUTEIB-UPC, Barcelona
Raul Benitez was born in Sevilla (Spain) in 1974, and has lived in Catalonia since 1982. In 1997, he graduated in Theoretical Physics from the University of Barcelona (UB). After finishing his studies, he spent one year at the University of Bayreuth (Germany) working on Physics of Complex Systems with the support of a TMR fellowship from the European Commission. In 1998 he was awarded a graduate fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, and since February 2000 he is an Assistant Professor at the Automatic Control Department of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). He teaches courses on Industrial Automation, Control Systems and Programmable Logic Devices at the Escola Universitària d’Enginyeria Tècnica Industrial de Barcelona (EUETIB, UPC). In January 2005, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Physics from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya with a dissertation entitled ‘Phase-field study of transient stages and fluctuations in solidification’ (link). As a graduate student, he held visiting research positions in France (Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Paris), Germany (Max Planck Institute for the study of complex systems, Dresden) and the United States (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). In October 2005, he was awarded a Balsells Postdoctoral Fellowship to join a multidisciplinary group working in mathematical modeling of biomedical systems at the University of California, Irvine. He likes fencing, baroque music and some classic TV series like Northern Exposure.
2006
Marc Salleras Freixes
Ph.D., Physics, UB
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2006-2009
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Advisor: Professor A. Shkel
Presently: CNM, Barcelona
Marc Salleras Freixes was born in Girona in 1976. He studied Physics and Electronic Engineering at the Universitat de Barcelona, obtaining his degrees in 1999 and 2002, respectively. He also obtained a Master’s degree (2003) from CIMNE (Centre Internacional de Metodes Numerics per a Enginyeria) at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Numerical Methods for Engineering (Master en Metodes Numerics per Calcul i Disseny en Enginyeria). He obtained his PhD degree in physics from the Universitat de Barcelona in 2007 with a thesis on thermal modeling of microsystems and electronic components. In 2004 he spent three months (April to June) doing research at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) in the Technische Elektrophysik department with Prof. Wachutka. During this stay he also participated in different projects at EADS (European Aeronautic Defense and Space) in Ottobrunn (Germany) involving a miniaturized photoacoustic device and an ion mobility spectrometer. In 2005 he spent one month (September) at the Institut fur Mikrosystemtechnik (IMTEK) at the Albert-Ludwig University in Freiburg (Germany) conducting research on Krylov based techniques for model order reduction of large-scale models. His main research field is microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). He has six articles in refereed publications and has participated in 15 international conferences mainly in Europe, most of them involving oral presentations. In July 2006 he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue postdoctoral studies in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering department at the University of California Irvine. He enjoys playing volleyball, biking, playing piano, traveling, and playing any type of board, mind and card games.
2009
Veronica Nieves
Physics, University of Barcelona, 2002
M.S., Meteorology and Climatology, Univ. of Barcelona, 2003
Ph.D., Applied Physics, UPC-Barcelona, 2008
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2009-2011
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Advisor: Professor R. L. Bras
Presently: Assistant Reseracher, JIFRESSE, UCLA
Veronica Nieves was born in Barcelona in 1977. In 2002, she graduated in Physics from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB). During her undergraduate studies, she was awarded four one-year scholarships by the Spanish Ministry of Education, two internship fellowships by UB, one at the Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya and the other at the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya; and a summer school fellowship at the Albert-Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg, by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. In 2003, she obtained a Master’s degree in “Meteorology and Climatology” from UB, and was awarded a EU Socrates fellowship at the Laboratoire de Sondages Electromagnétiques de l’Environnement Terrestre (LSEET), Université de Toulon et du Var, Toulon. Afterwards, she participated in different European research projects at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), where she started her career as an investigator in Applied Physics. From 2006 to 2008 she carried out her doctoral research in the Department of Physical Oceanography at the Institute of Marine Science (ICM), CSIC, Barcelona. She conducted a six-month research stay at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego. During her Ph.D. training, she participated in a number of international workshops and courses in the area of nonlinear processes in oceanic and atmospheric flows, and of remote sensing. In 2008, she defended her Ph.D. thesis with Cum Laude honors at UPC with a thesis on “Multiscale techniques in turbulence: application to geophysical fluids and operational oceanography”. Dr. Nieves has authored more than ten peer-reviewed publications in the interdisciplinary areas of physical oceanography, geophysical turbulence, and remote sensing and more than 30 among congress participations or invited talks in several scientific institutions recognized worldwide. In 2009, she was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue her postdoctoral research in Prof. Rafael L. Bras group at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of California, Irvine (UCI). Her main research interest is to develop a unified framework for characterizing multi-scaling behavior of environmental conditions, e.g., rainfall, soil moisture and topography, in terms of macroscale properties. The ultimate goal is to use the results in the effective design of hydrologic data collection networks. She enjoys running, cycling, diving, climbing, and less risky activities like learning languages and reading.
2010
Esteban Meca
Physics, University of Barcelona, 1998
Electrical Engineer, University of Barcelona, 2001
Ph.D. in Applied Physics, UPC-Barcelona, 2010
Postdoctoral Fellow, Mathematics, 2010-2013
Advisor: Professor J. Lowengrub
Esteban Meca was born in Barcelona in 1976. In 1998, he graduated in Physics from the University of Barcelona, and in 2001, he graduated in Electrical Engineering also from the University of Barcelona. In 2002, he was awarded a graduate scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education. In 2005, he started teaching in the Applied Physics Department of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), at the School of Technology in Castelldefels. In June 2010, he obtained his PhD in Physics with honors (cum laude) from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, with a dissertation entitled “Convective Instabilities and Directional Solidification in Binary Mixtures”. He was also awarded a “European Doctor” mention. As a graduate student, he held visiting research positions in Canada (McGill University, Montreal) and in France (École Polytechnique, Paris). In July 2010 he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research in biological modeling with the group of Professor John Lowengrub in the Mathematics Department of the University of California, Irvine. He enjoys music, cinema, reading, and playing guitar.
2012
Sergio Gago Masagué
Industrial Engineer, UPC-Barcelona, 2006
Ph.D., Engineering Projects and Technology, UPC-Barcelona, 2012
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2012-2015
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and CalIT2
Advisors: Professors Dave Reinkensmeyer and G.P. Li
Sergio Gago Masagué was born in Barcelona in 1980. In 2006, he earned a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, and a second degree in Product & System Design. During that same year, he started to work as junior consultant for Indra Systems where he developed several design projects until 2007. In that period, he contributed to the design of the Mobility Plan of the Barcelona Airport which involved the construction of the new terminal in Barcelona. In addition, he participated in the Safety and Health Project for Heliport’s fair in Barcelona. In 2007, he was hired as Project Manager by Narada Robotics, where he developed and researched new lines of products in the Emotional Design field until 2012. It was then that he began his PhD program in “Innovation Projects in Product and Process Technology” in the Department of Engineering Projects at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona. His research interests include product engineering, human safety, robotics and emotional design techniques. In June 2012, he obtained his PhD in Engineering with a dissertation entitled “Wellness design: Engineering for emotion in human-device interaction”. Then he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research in a biorobotics laboratory with Professor David Reinkensmeyer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the University of California, Irvine. He enjoys music, dance, cinema, traveling, and photography.
Joan Giner de Haro
Telecommunications Engineer, UAB, 2007
M.S., Micro and Nanoelectronic Engineering, UAB, 2008
Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering, UAB, 2012
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2012
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Advisor: Professor Andrei Shkel
Joan Giner de Haro was born in Torreblanca, Castelló, in 1984. In September 2007, he graduated from the Escola d’Enginyeria of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, obtaining the degree of Telecommunications Engineer. In September 2008, he obtained an MS degree on Micro and Nanoelectronic Engineering in the same university and was hired as a Adjunct Professor by the Electronic Engineering Department. In September 2012, he obtained the PhD for a thesis entitled “Development of microelectromechanical systems for RF signal processing”. In 2012, he was awarded a Balsells Post-Doctoral Fellowship to pursue research in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering. His research interests include RF MEMS for signal processing and high performance clocks. He likes electronic music and running.
2013
Manel Garrido Baserba
PhD in Chemical Engineering, EPS-UdG, Girona, 2012
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2013-2017
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Advisor: Professor Diego Rosso
Manel Garrido Baserba was born in La Jonquera (Girona) in 1983. In 2006, he earned a degree in Environmental Science from the University of Girona (UdG), with a specialization in engineering and technology. He combined his degree working for several International companies (EASEN. CO, China; and Construfer Engenharia, Brasil) and EU Universities (LEUPHANA, Germany and UdG, Catalonia). In September 2008, he obtained an MSc degree on Water Science and Technology from UdG and completed his MSc project in the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) where he was hired as a researcher by the BioEngineering Department until he started to work in 2009 as a PhD student for the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) and the Laboratory of Chemical Engineering research group (LEQUIA) within the NOVEDAR_Consolider project [CSD2007-00055]. In that period, he contributed to develop and implement new tools and methodologies in a Decision Support System (EDSS) for the selection of the best wastewater treatment plant alternatives. During his years as PhD student he received two predoctoral fellowships, one at the Australian National University Canberra (ANU) and the other at the Group of Environmental Engineering and Bioprocesses in Santiago de Compostela (Spain). In 2013, he obtained the PhD degree with a thesis entitled “Development of a Decision Support System for the selection and integrated assessment of process flow diagrams in wastewater treatment”. He was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, in the Urban Water Research Center. He enjoys travelling, diving, cinema and wildlife.
2016
Joan Lobo Prat
BS in Industrial Design Engineering, Elisava, 2009
PhD in Biomechanical Engineering, University of Twente, Netherlands, 2016
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2016-2018
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Advisor: Professor David Reinkensmeyer
Joan Lobo Prat was born in Barcelona in 1988. He studied Industrial Design Engineering at ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, and received his MSc. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and the University of Barcelona. During his MSc. degree in Barcelona, he completed a six moth Erasmus exchange program at the Technical University of Delft (The Netherlands).
He carried out his master graduation project in the Hospital of Neurorehabilitation Institut Guttmann (Badalona) in collaboration with UPC and the National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia. The title of the thesis was: “A new kinematic and dynamic model for clinical evaluation of the upper extremity motion during an activity of daily living in subjects with neurological disorders”.
After graduating, he continued studying at the Technical University of Delft (The Netherlands) where he completed another MSc. degree in Biomedical Engineering. At the end of his study program, Prof. Bart F.J.M. Koopman, Prof. Peter H. Veltink and Arno H.A. Stinen offered him the opportunity to carry out a PhD in the Department of Biomechanical Engineering of the University of Twente working on the Flextension A-Gear project. During his PhD, he developed control interfaces to actively support the arm function of adults with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Afterwards he worked at Focal Meditech (Tilburg, The Netherlands) developing the ExoArm, a robotic arm support for people with severe muscular weakness. After his work at Focal Meditech, and thanks to a Balsells Fellowship, he will work as a Postdoctoral researcher at the Biorobotics Lab with Prof. David J. Reinkensmeyer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the University of California, Irvine. During his postdoctoral research he will be developing a robotic device that assists people with stroke in manual wheelchair propulsion.
Joan enjoys music, sailing, biking and photography.
2017
Alex Vallmitjana Lees
BS in Physics, University of Barcelona, 2009
PhD in Biomedical Engineering, UPC, 2017
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2017-2020
Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics – Biomedical Engineering
Advisor: Professor Enrico Gratton
Alex Vallmitjana was born in Barcelona in 1981. In 2009 he graduated in physics from the University of Barcelona and in 2010 he was hired as an assistant professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. He has taught Programming Fundamentals, Industrial Automation and Programmable Logic Controllers at the engineering faculty Escola Universitària d’Enginyeria Tècnica Industrial de Barcelona (EUETIB) and in 2016 at the Escola d’Enginyeria de Barcelona Est (EEBE). In 2017 he obtained his Ph.D. cum laude in Biomedical Engineering with a thesis entitled “Multiscale Image Analysis of Calcium Dynamics in Cardiac Myocytes” for which he was also awarded International Doctor Honors. His thesis advisor was former Balsells Postdoctoral Fellow Raúl Benítez. As a graduate student, Alex held visiting research positions in the United States (Professor Nenadic’s lab, University of California Irvine) and in Canada (Professor Chen’s lab, Universitiy of Calgary). He also extensively collaborated with Dr. Hove-Madsen’s lab at the Institut Català de Ciències Cardiovasculars, where he developed image processing methods for calcium imaging and with a 1D3A developing sports video tracking software. In 2017 he was awarded a Balsells Postdoctoral Fellowship to join the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) with Prof. Gratton where he will be combining orbital tracking technology with stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. He enjoys nature, hiking, biking, road trips, guitar, history and science fiction.
2018
Edgar Olivares Mañas
B.S. in Physics, University of Barcelona, 2011
M.S. in Computational Physics, UPC, 2011
Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, UPC, 2018
Postdoctoral Fellow, Calit2
Advisor: Professor G.P. Li
Edgar Olivares Mañas was born in Barcelona in 1985. In 2011, he obtained a B.S. in Physics from the University of Barcelona and started an M.S. degree in Computational Physics while doing a 2-year internship with Telefónica Research, developing big data tools to find commuting patterns in large cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, London, or Mexico DF.
In 2013, he was awarded a La Caixa fellowship to pursue his PhD at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) while matriculated in the Applied Mathematics department of UPC, working with Dr. Guillaume Houzeaux. He focused his PhD on Lagrangian particle transport in a High Performance Computing (HPC) context applied to respiratory system airways. In 2015, he conducted a 3-month internship at Imperial College in London in the group of Professor Denis Doorly and in collaboration with Saint Mary’s hospital to validate the simulations with real clinical data. In 2018, he finished his PhD and moved to the Fusion group at the BSC, working with Professor Mervi Mantsinen and in charge of fast-ion simulations.
At the end of 2018, he was awarded a Balsells postdoctoral fellowship to work with Professors Sergio Gago-Masagué and G.P. Li at Calit2.
2019
Martí Comellas Andrés
B.S. in Industrial Engineering, UPC-Terrassa, 2009
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UdL-Lleida, 2013
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Advisor: Prof. David J. Reinkensmeyer
Martí Comellas Andrés was born in Lleida in 1985. In 2009, he obtained a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) in Terrassa. In parallel with his studies, he started his research career at the GREA research group of the University of Lleida, obtaining his PhD entitled “Transmission system for an off-road multiple axle wheeled vehicle. Performance and energy efficiency modelling” in 2013.
From 2014, he has been Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Area at the University of Lleida where he is conducting research in the SEMB research group. He has collaborated in research projects involving mechanical design, vehicle design, CAD modelling and prototyping.
In 2018, he conducted a 3-month research collaboration at the Biorobotics Laboratory of Professor David J. Reinkensmeyer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the University of California, Irvine. Then, he was awarded a Balsells Fellowship to continue his research on the development of movement rehabilitation devices to help people recover after a stroke or a spinal cord injury.
He enjoys sports and motor sports.