Javier Lafuente

Javier Lafuente is Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. A graduate in Chemical Science, specializing in Technical Chemistry, in 1982, he received his doctorate in Chemical Engineering with a cum laude qualification in 1988. He has done research stays at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

He is the director of the Technological Center for the Integral Treatment of Gaseous Emissions, Liquid Effluents and Solid Waste (BIO-GLS), which is part of the TECNIO network, and head of the consolidated research group on Biological Treatment of Liquid and Gaseous Effluents, Elimination of Nutrients, Odors and Volatile Organic Compounds (GENOCOV). The research group he heads specializes in the development of biological treatment systems for liquid, solid and gaseous effluents.

He is the author of 141 publications in indexed journals with more than 3,500 citations and an index of 35, and has directed most of the more than sixty national, European and business research projects in which he has participated. He has directed twelve doctoral theses and numerous final year projects. In addition, it has created two spin-off companies of an environmental nature for the application of cutting-edge technologies to effluent treatment.

He has been Director of the Department of Chemical Engineering (2004-2010) and Vice-Rector for Innovation and Strategic Projects (2016-2020). He has also been the coordinator of the Chemical Engineering degree and the rector’s delegate at the Polytechnic University School of the Environment (EUPMA) in Mollet del Vallès. In addition, he has been a member of the Economics and Organization and International Relations Committees of the UAB Governing Council. He is a member of various faculty evaluation committees and research projects.