UABDivulga - Barcelona recerca i innovació

Description:

Share via WhatsAppShare via e-mail

Event details

•  Start: 10 Jun 2026  13:00
•  End: 10 Jun 2026  14:30
•  iHC Seminar room

In this Work in Progress (WiP) seminar, Hèctor Isern examines ocean monitoring systems in Europe between 1977 and 1992, and the role that satellite data played in this period. More specifically, it analyses the production, distribution, and use of data through the case of ERS-1, the European Space Agency's first major Earth-observation satellite, launched in 1991. More broadly, this work foregrounds the question of how satellite data became a powerful tool in late twentieth-century ocean and climate science, contributing to the production of knowledge that often appeared authoritative and uncontested. By the close of the twentieth century, ocean monitoring systems had become firmly consolidated in Europe, with satellite data forming one of their fundamental components while also providing one of the key rationales for their continued expansion. The dissertation tackles the question of how satellite data came to function as a sine qua non.

In short, Isern's argument is that satellite data co-produced and reproduced old and new data-related practices. The notion of encapsulation helps explain this reciprocal process. Satellite data paved the way for the expansion of ocean monitoring systems because they encapsulated and mobilised a broader constellation of old and new elements. Satellite data concealed the instruments, algorithms, standards, processing chains, labour, institutional arrangements, and political expectations that made them possible. As these data products were distributed, they did not merely depict the ocean; they also co-produced and reproduced the very practices through which ocean monitoring systems expanded. In other words, data never travels alone.

Commentator: Xavier Roqué (UAB)

Hèctor Isern is a PhD student working on the ERC-SG project «CLIMASAT: Remote-sensing satellite data and the making of global climate in Europe, 1980s–2000s». Her academic background includes a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Sciences (UB), a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy (UB), a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering (UPC), and a Master's degree in the History of Science (UAB). Her research interests include the history of Earth observation satellites, the relationship between science and diplomacy, the history of data, the history of technology, and environmental history.

If you are interested in reading the entire text in advance —highly recommended, since the WiP seminar format presupposes prior reading— you can request it from Hector.Isern@uab.cat or Laia.Torres.Casas@uab.cat

Remember that you can bring your lunch on site, as we will have a lunch-seminar format, rigorous and informal at the same time.

Place: iHC Seminar room

Date: Thursday 11, June de 2026 - 13:00h

Date: Thursday 11, June de 2026 - 14:30h

Description:

PerCientEx (Scientific Journalism of Excellence) returns to the CosmoCaixa Science Museum on 11 June at 6:00 p.m. On its tenth anniversary, the PerCientEx project focuses on watchdog science journalism, one of the most necessary aspects of journalism to guarantee the integrity of science.

Registrations open at this link.

The project is coordinated by the Catalan Association of Scientific Communication (ACCC) and the Department of Communication and Education of the UAB, and receives the support of the “laCaixa” Foundation.  

The event will bring together Rodrigo Pérez Ortega, Mexican journalist from Science who has investigated abuses at university; Mira Petrovic, researcher at the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), who alerted about corrupt practices; and Pilar Paneque, director of the National Agency for Quality and Accreditation (ANECA), who is promoting new ways to encourage scientific quality and discourage bad practices.

The speakers will discuss how scientific journalism can contribute to promoting integrity and contrasting bad scientific practices. In addition, during the event, new results and a set of examples of watchdog science journalism in the Ibero-American field will be presented.

More information: The role of scientific journalism against bad practices and in favor of the integrity of science is the focus of the tenth edition of the PerCientEx conference.

Place: CosmoCaixa Science Museum

Date: Thursday 11, June de 2026 - 18:00h

Description:

On 17 June at 11:00 a.m., the Research Group on Immigration and Ethnic Minorities (GEDIME) and the Migration Studies and Research Centre of the UAB organise a sesssion entitled "Refugi a Espanya: negligència, arbitrarietat i desemparament en un sistema col·lapsat" [Asylum in Spain: negligence, arbitrariness and abandonment in a collapsed system]. The session will take place at the meeting room of the UAB Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology and aims to analyse from a critical viewpoint the current situation of the asylum and refugee system in Spain. Focus will be put on institutional negligences, administrative arbitrariness, and the abandonment of those seeking international protection.

The conference will be given by Arnau Poy, lecturer in sociology at the UAB. Poy will reflect onthe social, political and legal consequences of a collapsed system, as well as on the obstacles encountered by refugees when trying to access their rights, when applying for asylum and in receiving effective protection.

Place: Faculty of Political Science and Sociology (meeting room)

Date: Wednesday 17, June de 2026 - 11:00h

Description:

The research group Mediation, Interpreting and Research in the Social Field (MIRAS) organises the 10th Catalan Public Services Interpreting Conference, focused this year on intercultural communication mediated by interpreters in the health field.  

The programme offers a set of training activities and debates such as practical workshops, conferences and applied analysis sessions, among which the plenary conference "Overcoming language barriers in the provision of health services in the US" stands out, given by Cindy Roat, pioneer of health interpreting in the US. There will also be a training course for health personnel, given by Sofía García, Mattea Jean, and Helena Villares, lecturer, researcher and student, respectively, of translation and interpreting at the UAB.

La jornada clourà amb una sèrie de sessions en què es presentaran els resultats del projecte CIMAS i amb un debat en què intervindran diversos perfils professionals involucrats en la Comunicació Intercultural Mediada, moderat per Mireia Vargas-Urpí, professora agregada del Departament de Traducció i d'Interpretació i d'Estudis de l'Àsia Oriental.

MIRAS lliurarà un certificat oficial de formació a totes aquelles persones que assisteixin a la formació de la jornada. La inscripció, gratuïta, es pot fer en aquest enllaç fins el 10 de juny. 

Place: Aula 114, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona (Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron 119)

Date: Friday 19, June de 2026 - 09:30h

Description:

The Institute of European Studies of the UAB is organising, in collaboration with the Faculty of Law and the EUGLOB Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the UAB, the closing of the Master's Degree in European Integration with the session "Current and Future Challenges of the EU: rule of law, democracy and future direction of European integration". The event will take place on 30 June at 4:00 p.m., in the main hall of the Faculty of Law of the UAB. The session will be led by Viviane Reding, former Vice-President of the European Commission. Reding will reflect on the current and future challenges of the European Union, particularly in relation to the rule of law, democracy and the evolution of the European integration process.

Date: Tuesday 30, June de 2026 - 16:00h

Description:

The Institut Metròpoli, located at the Bellaterra campus and with the UAB as one of its member institutions, is organising on 6 July at 9:45 a.m. a session entitled AMB en xifres 2026, la metròpoli en 100 indicadors: entendre les dinàmiques, millorar les polítiques [AMB in 2026 Figures, the metropolis in 100 indicators: understanding dynamics, improving policies], which will be held at the Pati Manning in Barcelona. The new edition of the journal published yearly by the Institut Metròpoli will focus on changing strategic areas of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, such as mobility, sustainability, coexistence, security and the economy, as well as key indicators such as jobs, migration, discrimination, institutional transparency and media impact. The session aims to explain how public policy can express this knowledge for the planning and management of cities through a cross-sectional view of the main dynamics of the metropolitan area in one hundred indicators. The set of indicators will show the evolution of the city in the past fifteen years. To attend, please fill out this registration form.

José Luis Haro, director of metropolitan policy analysis services at the AMB, will give the institutional welcome at 10:00 a.m., and Sergio Porcel, head of the social and urban cohesion area at the Institut Metròpoli, will present the publication La metròpoli en 100 indicadors i els seus objectius [The metropolis in 100 indicators and its objectives]. Núria Pérez, head of the mobility area at the Institut Metròpoli, will also participate and talk about the advances and challenges towards more sustainable and socially fair mobility. Tarik Serrano, researcher in the sustainability area at the Institut Metròpoli, will address changes in environmental behaviour and the use of resources in the city, and Mar Satorras, sustainability researcher at the Institut Metròpoli, will moderate a round table on how to use data to improve public policies. Marta Solé, manager of Life Cycle, Diversity and Community Services at the Barcelona Provincial Council, will also participate; as will Jordi Bordanove, coordinator of the AMB's parks and beaches management services; and Cristina Jiménez, head of mobility at Barcelona Regional.

Place: Pati Manning, Barcelona (Carrer de Montalegre 7)

Date: Monday 6, July de 2026 - 09:45h