M. Josefa Yzuel to be awarded Honorary Doctor by UMH

25/01/2012

Sponsored by the Department of Material Science, Optics and Electronic Technology, the University Miguel Hernández (UMH) in Elx will award an honorary doctorate to M. Josefa Yzuel Giménez, professor of Optics at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, for her academic achievements, research activities and scientific production. The ceremony will take place on Friday 27 January at 11 am at the conference hall of the Rectorate and Board of Trustees building of UMH. Yzuel's sponsor is professor of Optics at UMH, Ignacio Moreno Soriano.

Maria Josefa Yzuel Giménez earned her doctoral degree in Science from the University of Saragossa and carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Reading, UK. She became professor of Optics at the University of Granada and since 1983, is professor of Optics of the UAB Department of Physics. She is currently numerary member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona, and member of the Academy of Sciences of Granada and of the Academy of Sciences of Saragossa. In 2009 she was elected President of the International Society for Optics and Photonics, the first Spaniard to occupy this post. From 2007 to 2011 she was Vice President of the Spanish Royal Society of Physics. In March 2011 she received the 2011 UAB Recognition Prize for her professional and personal achievements, and for her fight for women's rights.

She has worked in several research fields such as the diffraction theory of optical systems and improving the quality of medical images. Yzuel is member of the Research Group in Optics of the UAB Department of Physics, where she carries out several lines of research focused on the optical processing of information, optical recognition of objects, diffraction optics and the polarimetric characterisation of light space modulators based on liquid crystals.

Yzuel Giménez has published over 250 research papers and directed or co-directed 20 doctoral theses. Her research activities have led her to collaborate with several local and international groups, such as joint collaborations with the University Miguel Hernández, the Department of Applied Physics and Signal Theory at University of Alacant, the Department of Physics of the University of Buenos Aires, and the Department of Physics of the San Diego State University. Maria Josefa Yzuel Giménez collaborates closely with UMH professors Felipe Mateos and Ignacio Moreno in UAB-coordinated research projects.