Images
The 2011 edition of the ICREA Academia award, an initiative to foster excellence in research among teaching and research staff of state universities in Catalonia, has recognized the scientific career of Modesto Orozco, scientist at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), and full professor of the University of Barcelona.
For the first time, in the 2011 call, ICREA opened the Academia division to scientists that perform research in CERCA centres, which are supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya. The Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) started the ICREA Academia Programme with the aim to motivate and retain university faculty with outstanding careers.
Short bio
Dr. Modesto Orozco, full professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona, and director of the Molecular Modelling and Bioinformatics Group at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona). Professor Orozco is also director of the joint research programme in Computational Biology (IRB Barcelona and BSC) and of the Structural Bioinformatics node of the National Institute of Bioinformatics (INB). He also leads the Life Sciences Department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC). Dr. Orozco is one of the leading European researchers on the simulation of biological systems and an international expert on the theoretical study of macromolecular systems, especially nucleic acids (DNA and RNA).
Throughout his career, he has published more than 300 scientific articles and has developed a series of computational programs and algorithms that the international scientific community still benefits from today. His articles have more than 9,000 citations and a very high impact index, as shown by his Hirsch index of 51, thus making him one of the most renowned computational chemists and biologists in the world. This year Dr. Orozco will be starting a project awarded an ERC Advanced Grant (2011), the most competitive research funding programme in Europe. Dr. Orozco is an editor and a member of the editorial boards of the most prestigious international scientific journals in his field of knowledge. He is also a member of assessment panels in Spain, Europe and the United States, and is a consultant for different pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Orozco has received a number of national and international awards for his work and has received financing from the Marcelino Botín Foundation for the last four years.
Link to ICREA Academia 2011 Awardees
Link to University of Barcelona news
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
