Position: Coordinators of the project

Silvia Carrasco (PhD, MBA) is director of the KTT Unit at ICFO since 2006, and was awarded with the “Fem Talent” award in February 2013. She is also vice-president of the Spanish mirror of the European Platform Photonics21, a Member of the Board of SECPhO, the Southern European Cluster in Photonics and Optics, and the founder of the “From Science to Business” Program that ICFO has launched in 2008 jointly with ESADE Business School, to promote the entrepreneurial spirit among young scientists.

Ferran Sancho obtained his Chemistry degree in 2013 followed by a Master’s degree in Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modelling in 2015 at the University of Barcelona (UB). He is currently carrying on a PhD project at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) in the Life Science department. His open investigation lines are oxidoreductases catalysis, mainly flavoproteins and laccases, and the designing of new variants for industrial eco friendly applications.

Gerard Santiago obtained his Biochemistry degree by University of Barcelona (UB) in 2013, and a Bioengineering Master by Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS) in 2015. He is currently a PhD candidate in Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS). His scientific career revolves around different levels of Green Biotechnology, such as: new enzyme discovery for industrial applications in extreme environments, production of high-value compounds on eukaryotic strains grow it in waste materials and enzyme design (focused on oxidoreductases) for eco-friendly industry.

Celia Santos graduated in Biology from at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and studied a Master’s in Genetics and Cell Biology at the same center. While at the UAM, she workded in José Fernández Piqueras’ lab (Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa) addressing non-coding (miRNAs) loci underlying genetic susceptibility to T-Lymphoblastic lymphoma. She is currently doing her PhD in Genetics in Marco Milan’s lab at IRB Barcelona, studying the role of microRNA machinery in growth regulation in Drosophila melanogaster. She has participated in various science and research activities with young students at IRB Barcelona and in secondary schools and has been involved in workshops for the general public.

Núria Ros has a Bachelor in Biotechnology (University of Vic) and a Master in Biomedical Research (Pompeu Fabra University). Since 2014, she is a PhD student in evolutionary biology trying to unravel the origin of animal multicellularity by studying a unicellular relative of animals. She has been involved in several projects to try to better understand this organism continuing her formation with microscopy courses and a stage at Harvard University. Besides this, during all these years she has complemented her scientific career with several outreach and teaching activities, always trying to engage the general public and especially future students with interest for sciences.

Alicia Sánchez has a Bachelor in Biology with a major in Zoology (Computense University of Madrid), and a Master in Primatology (University of Barcelona). During her studies, she did some fieldwork with turtles in Cape Verde and later on in a primary rainforest of Madagascar, where she could study lemur behaviour for 7 months. In 2015 she started her PhD in IBE (UPF-CSIC) in Barcelona (Spain). Her PhD is focused on the study of diversity patterns and phylogenies in animals and their unicellular relatives, with the aim of discovering new molecular lineages to complete part of the tree of life. She is also involved in scientific outreach to promote the communication of basic science to the general public.

• Degree in Computer Science by the Technological Educational Institute (TEI) – Athens, Greece.
• MSc in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) – Barcelona, Spain. Master thesis on biologically inspired computation for chemical sensing (www.neurochem-project.org) using insect-based robots.
• PhD in Robotics by UPF and thesis on: “Learning from a robot: a study for the creation of synthetic psychologically plausible agents”.
• Expert in educational robotics.
• Head of the Robotics laboratory in SPECS at IBEC.

• Degree in Audiovisual Communication.
• MSc in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media by UPF.
• PhD candidate in the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) and a researcher in the SPECS group at IBEC.
• Research focused on Educational Technologies and Human-Robot Interaction.
• Robotics teacher to primary and secondary school students.

Alberto Pérez-Posada did a BS in Biology at the University of Seville, having spent his last year working as a researcher student in Protist Gene Regulation. He moved to Barcelona for a MSc in Genetics and Genomics at Universidad de Barcelona, with a MSc scholarship from Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation. He did his Master thesis under the supervision of Iñaki Ruiz Trillo, and continued in the same laboratory for the PhD project at Pompeu Fabra University. After one year, he has been working in the development for genetic tools in the unicellular relatives of animals, as well as the role of pivotal gene regulators in the unicellular context of these organisms.

Prof. Ramon Gomis is currently Scientist Emeritus at the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), as well as Professor Emeritus at the University of Barcelona (UB). Prof. Gomis was awarded both his undergraduate and doctorate degrees in Medicine by UB. After performing postdoctoral training at the Free University of Brussels, he pursued his professional and scientific career in biomedicine at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, where he occupied several different positions for over thirty years, including Director of Research and Head of the Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition. He served as Director of the IDIBAPS for almost a decade. He also had served as Director of the Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica, and as Chair in Endocrinology at UB. An accomplished author, Prof. Gomis has published hundreds of articles in internationally renowned scientific journals, primarily in the first and second quartile, as well as multiple book chapters. He has patented 4 inventions.