Rovira i Virgili University’s rector, María José Figueras, new president of the ACUP
This Thursday, 23 January 2020, the new board of directors of the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) has been constituted, which will be formed for a whole year by the rector of the Rovira i Virgili University, María José Figueras, as president; the rector of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Margarita Arboix, as VP; the president of the Social Council of the Pompeu Fabra University, Montserrat Vendrell, as second VP; the president of the Social Council of the University of Girona, Rosa Núria Aleixandre, as third VP; and the rector of the University of Barcelona and former ACUP’s president, Joan Elias, as secretary.
María José Figueras (Tarragona, 1953) has been the rector of the URV since May 2018. She specialized in electron microscopy at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), and became professor at the University of Barcelona in 1979. She has made a teaching and research career in the Biology and Microbiology Unit of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science of the URV, where she was university professor in 1988 and professor of Microbiology since 2001. She has promoted the teaching of biology and microbiology at the URV and has contributed to improving the methodologies for their teaching. She has been scientific advisor to the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Environmental Program, the European Comission and the Catalan Water Agency of the Generalitat de Catalunya on issues related to the microbiological contamination of water. In this field, numerous transfer contracts were established with the Bosch Gimpera, Abelló Pascual and URV foundations between 1990 and 2010. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Society of Microbiology. Related to management activity, she was secretary of Division VII of the University of Barcelona in Tarragona (1989-1992) and director of the Deparment of Basic Medical Sciences of the URV (2013-2018). She is mother of a daughter and a son and ambassador of the American Society for Microbiology in Spain (2015-2018).
The rectors of the universities represent the institution at the General Assembly of the ACUP, the highest governing body of the association. The presidency is held annually and in a pre-established rotating manner by the rectors of the universities. Since 2008, the presidents of the social councils or equivalent positions of the member universities have been added as members of the association’s General Assembly.
About the ACUP
The ACUP was created in 2002 and is made up of the University of Barcelona (UB), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), the University of Girona (UdG), the University of Lleida (UdL), the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). Its foundational objectives are to defend the interests of public universities and the role of universities in society, to project them internationally and to promote unique or strategic collaboration projects seeking efficiency and the greatest impact.
