Damià Barceló awarded as Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universitat de Lleida

24 June 2021

The IDAEA researcher and director of the Institut Català de Recerca de l’Aigua (ICRA), Damià Barceló Cullerés, was awarded as Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universitat de Lleida (UdL). In the ceremony celebrated on Wednesday, 23rd June, the professor Barceló, PhD in analytical chemistry, warned of the volume of plastic production and consumption around the world, problem that has worsened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the massive use of masks, gloves and medical equipment.

“We all know that the detection of the virus is done by q-PCR but what we do not know is that each measure involves 37 grams of plastic. Thus, by August 2020, 15,000 tons of plastic had been generated worldwide only due to PCRs”, he explained. The solution for Barceló is to eliminate single-use plastics, produce more biodegradable plastic, develop more legislation in this area, the involvement of society and NGOs and keep conducting microplastics monitoring programs. In fact, it will be the environmental monitoring programs with professionals from different fields (chemistry, ecology, ecotoxicology, hydrology, hydromorphology, etc.) and with state-of-the-art technology to identify new contaminants, such as nanomaterials, the key element for improving water quality. “Water reuse is becoming more important everywhere and is gaining momentum every day, especially in a water shortage scenario.”

Damià Barceló Cullerés, a native of Menàrguens (Lleida),  has been sponsored by the UdL professor of Geography, Ramon Batalla, who highlighted Barceló’s joint work with the River Dynamics Research Group (RIVERS) of the UdL in projects such as SCARCE on the effects of climate change on the rivers of the Iberian Peninsula. He emphasized his multidisciplinary spirit: “Thanks to researchers like him, who have gone to seek knowledge to the frontiers of his science with other disciplines, leaving his comfort zone, we have more knowledge about systems as complex as rivers”, said Batalla.

Research professor at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC) in Barcelona and also a professor at King Saud University (Saudi Arabia), Barceló has the Jaume I Prize for Environmental Protection (2007), the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in Saudi Arabia (2012), and the Recipharm International Environmental Prize (2012) and holds an honorary doctorate from Ioannina University (Greece). His research career has focused on water quality, particularly the development of methods to monitor the organic contamination of so-called emerging contaminants (pesticides, detergents, endocrine disruptors, drugs, antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals) in natural and waste waters, and since 2010 he is among the top-ranked scientists internationally.

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