Board

Francisco Javier Lafuente (Chancellor)

Tenured Professor of Chemical Engineering. He completed his Master Degree and PhD studies at UAB and has studied abroad in institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble. His research work and that of his research group have been focused on the application of biological systems to the treatment of contaminant effluents, an area in which he has also supervised a technological transfer centre from the TECNIO network of Generalitat de Catalunya. From 2016 to 2020 he was Vice-Chancellor for Innovation and Strategic Projects. Since November 2020 he has held the position of Chancellor.

Maria Rosa Català Fernández (Secretary)

She has a Law Degree from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a Postgraduate Diploma as a Specialist in Public Administration from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya as well as a Master’s Degree in Catalan Law and an MBA in Information Society Business Management from UAB. She started to work at UAB in 1989, as a lawyer in the Legal Department and has been Head of the Institutional Coordination Office since it was first set up. In 1999 she joined Fundació Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona as the Legal and HR Director.

Silvia Altafaja Vela

She is a Doctor of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising and has a Master’s Degree in Contemporary East Asian Research from UAB. She has a Master's Degree in East Asian Studies from UOC and a Diploma in History from UAB. She is currently Head of University Social Responsibility and Healthy and Sustainable Campus Department at UAB. She held the position of Technical Secretary and Head of Administration in the Postgraduate School and was a lecturer in East Asian Studies at UOC, in the areas of art and gender and family studies. She also worked as a volunteer in the Friends of UNESCO Association in Barcelona.

Juan José Donaire

Professor of Mathematical Analysis in the Department of Mathematics at the UAB. His field of research is the Theory of functions of a complex variable and its interconnection with Stochastic Processes. He has carried out research stays at the Technische Universität Berlin, the California Institute of Technology and the Université de Montréal. Among other positions, he has been president of the accreditation committee for lecturers and collaborators in the field of Sciences at AQU, vice-rector for Academic Policy and vice-rector for Faculty and Academic Programming. He has been Dean of the Faculty of Sciences since 2022.

Montserrat López Merlos

Anna Muro Rodríguez

Doctor in Psychology from the UAB, she is an associate professor in the Department of Basic, Developmental and Educational Psychology, researcher in the Research Group on Stress and Health and coordinator of the Master's Degree in Human Resources Management at the UAB. Specialist in academic motivation, individual differences and the promotion of positive mental health in educational environments, she has collaborated as a researcher and trainer with national and international research centers implementing upskilling workshops in psychological well-being management. She also leads the Ginesta Project, which promotes environmental and emotional education through forest medicine and the creation of stories.

Àngel Puyol González

Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His area of research is bioethics and theories of justice and he is currently leading a project that receives public finance entitled “Justice and democracy: towards a new solidarity model”. He was a Visiting Scholar at London School of Economics, New York University and La Sapienza. In relation to social transformation, he has published El sueño de la igualdad de oportunidades (Gedisa, 2010), El derecho a la fraternidad (Catarata, 2017) and Political Fraternity. Democracy beyond Freedom and Equality (Routledge, 2019). He is a member of the Catalan Bioethics Committee and of different clinical ethical committees.

Esther Zapater Duque

Tenured professor of Public International Law and EU Law. She obtained her Master's Degree and PhD at UAB after her official PhD and third year doctorate studies at foreign universities: Master's Degree in Law and European Institutions at Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) and Master's Degree at Université de Paris-II Panthéon-Assas (France). She is currently the Head of the SGR-ERJAIDI research group on the study of the European area of freedom, security and justice, the Director of the Law and Technology Institute (IDT-UAB) and Co-Director of the CICAC-UAB Social and Economic Justice Observatory Chair. Between 2013 and 2019 she was Dean of Law and since November 2020 she has held the position of General Secretary and Director of Equality and University Social Responsibility Policies.