UAB to award an honorary doctorate to Jordi Porta

Jordi Porta, president of Unescocat, former president of Òmnium Cultural and former director of the Jaume Bofill Foundation, has been named UAB's new honorary doctor by the UAB Governing Council. Dr Porta was nominated by the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology. Dr Porta has always maintained close ties to the UAB.

15/02/2013

Born in Barcelona in 1936, he earned his degree in Philosophy at the UB and went on to do his graduate studies at the Université de Paris Ouest - Nanterre. In 1971 he was elected as director of the Jaume Bofill Foundation, a position he occupied until 2001. The organisation is dedicated to working towards progress in knowledge by giving support to education through different initiatives (courses, seminars, research, etc.). His contributions stand out especially in the field of social sciences, and in political sciences and sociology in particular. The foundation was also one of the main supporters in the creation of UAB's Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology in 1985.

Collaborations between Dr Porta and the UAB continued and in the year 1992 he was named member of the Board of Trustees. In 1998, he was nominated the university's ombudsman and held this position from 2000 to 2009.

UAB's new honorary doctor was also president of Òmnium Cultural from 2002 to 2010, the year in which he was nominated president of the UNESCO Centre in Catalonia (Unescocat). In 2010 he was awarded the Saint George Cross by the Government of Catalonia.

Dr Porta has also been president of other associations, such as the Catalan Encyclopaedia Foundation, the Catalan Coordinators of Foundations and the 21st Century Christian Platform. He was also member of the governing council of the newspaper Avui and th publishing house Edicions 62. Among his published works are Anys de referència (1997) and El català, ara o mai (2005).