Ceremony in memory of Jorge Wagensberg

Jorge Wagensberg
Jorge Wagensberg
News | Institutional | Divulgation | Teaching
(11/12/2023)
On Thursday 14 December, at 12 noon, the Aula Magna of the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona will host the tribute "The Joy of Shared Knowledge. Act in memory of Jorge Wagensberg". Organized by the UB Rector's Office, the event can be followed on UBtv.
Jorge Wagensberg
Jorge Wagensberg
News | Institutional | Divulgation | Teaching
11/12/2023
On Thursday 14 December, at 12 noon, the Aula Magna of the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona will host the tribute "The Joy of Shared Knowledge. Act in memory of Jorge Wagensberg". Organized by the UB Rector's Office, the event can be followed on UBtv.
The event, the title of which is inspired by Wagensberg's book El gozo intelectual. Teoría y práctica sobre la inteligibilidad y la belleza (2007), coincides with the 75th anniversary of the birth of this multifaceted researcher. The tribute has been proposed by Montserrat Prat i Serra (Barcelona, 1942), librarian at the UB, cultural activist and writer, niece of the philologist, poet, and librarian Alfonso Serra i Baldó (1909-1993).

The event will be presented by José Enrique Gargallo Gil, professor of the Faculty of Philology and Communication. The ceremony will consist of two parts: the first, moderated by the Vice-Rector for Research, Jordi García Fernández, will offer a series of converging views on the polyhedral space of science, by the PhD student of the Max Planck Institute, Marta Florido Llinás, who will give the lecture "From youth and the incipient intellectual joy". Gemma Marfany, professor at the Faculty of Biology, will give a talk about Wagensberg's dissemination side, while M. Carme Llasat, professor at the Faculty of Physics, will pronounce "From climate studies". Finally, Noemí Montetes-Mairal, lecturer at the Faculty of Philology and Communication and director of the
Poetry Club, will give the talk “From poetry”.

The second part will begin with the dialogue "From the direct knowledge of Jorge Wagenberg", moderated by the head of the New Formats Unit, Patricia Lainz. It will include the participation of Mauricio Wagensberg (brother of the honoured Jorge); David Jou, retired professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and poet; Antoni Planes, professor in the Department of Structure and Constituents of Matter in the Faculty of Physics at the UB, and Rosa Flos, emeritus professor in the Department of Agri-Food Engineering and Biotechnology. The event will be closed by the Vice-Rector for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Transfer, Mercè Segarra Rubí.

Jorge Wagensberg was professor of the Theory of Irreversible Processes at the Faculty of Physics of the UB, science communicator, museographer and director and creator of CosmoCaixa. A multifaceted personality and great aphorist, he was the son of a Jewish couple who, fleeing persecution in Poland, moved to Barcelona in the early 1930s. He received numerous awards, such as the Saint George’s Cross, the National Prize for Scientific Thought and Culture and the Medal of Scientific Merit of the city of Barcelona. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Lleida.