Professor Ramon Parés, distinguished figure in the field of Microbiology in Spain
The Aula Magna of the Faculty of Biology held a ceremony to pay homage to Ramón Parés i Farràs, the first professor of Microbiology of the UB -and in Spain- in a ceremony on Monday, March 25, at 6 p.m.
The institutional homage was presided by the rector, Joan Elias. Participants were the dean of the Faculty of Biology, Rosina Gironés, and Núria Parés, biologist and Parésʼs daughter, as well as a wide group of lecturers of the UB who shared their academic and research career with Ramon Parés, in particular Joan Jofre, current president of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona (RACAB); Joandomènec Ros, president of the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC); M. José Prieto, Jacint Nadal, Mercè Durfort, Antonio Juárez and Francisco Lucena. Other participants were the experts Ferran Ribas, from Aigües de Barcelona; Jorge Lalucat, from the University of the Balearic Islands, Josep Maria Camarasa, from the Catalan Society for the History of Science and Technology (SCHCT).
The Aula Magna of the Faculty of Biology held a ceremony to pay homage to Ramón Parés i Farràs, the first professor of Microbiology of the UB -and in Spain- in a ceremony on Monday, March 25, at 6 p.m.
The institutional homage was presided by the rector, Joan Elias. Participants were the dean of the Faculty of Biology, Rosina Gironés, and Núria Parés, biologist and Parésʼs daughter, as well as a wide group of lecturers of the UB who shared their academic and research career with Ramon Parés, in particular Joan Jofre, current president of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona (RACAB); Joandomènec Ros, president of the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC); M. José Prieto, Jacint Nadal, Mercè Durfort, Antonio Juárez and Francisco Lucena. Other participants were the experts Ferran Ribas, from Aigües de Barcelona; Jorge Lalucat, from the University of the Balearic Islands, Josep Maria Camarasa, from the Catalan Society for the History of Science and Technology (SCHCT).
Ramon Parés i Farràs (1927-2018) is known by many generations of this country in the field of Microbiology. He was the first professor of Microbiology at the UB in 1964 -the first chair in this discipline in Spain- and officially started the path to build the former Department of Microbiology, created in 1968 and now integrated to the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics of the UB. This first chair, different from the traditional teaching given at the faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy and Veterinary sciences, offered a first global view on microorganisms, from a biological perspective, linked to the recent development of biochemistry and genetics.
Ramon Parés graduated in Natural Sciences at the University of Barcelona in 1951 and got the doctoral degree in Sciences with an extraordinary award in the same university in 1956. He was scientific collaborator at the National Research Council (1962), professor of Microbiology at the University of Barcelona (1964), and dean of the Faculty of Biology (1968-1973).
Ramon Parés is the author of several books and more than two-hundred articles in several languages, mainly on microbial biochemistry and environmental microbiology, and history and philosophy of science, with titles such as La ciència en la història dels Països Catalans (IEC and University of Valencia), a work he co-ñed with the prestigious Arabist of the UB Joan Vernet.
Member of the Institute for Catalan Studies, numerary academician of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia and president of the Catalan Society of Biology, Parés was awarded the Narcís Monturiol Medal to scientific and technological merit by the Generalitat de Catalunya (1986), honorary doctorate by the University of Nancy (France, 1987) and the Gold Medal to scientific merit by the Barcelona City Council (1997).