Josep Penuelas

Josep Peñuelas i Reixach was born in Catalonia, Spain, in 1958. Resident in Figueres when he was young, he studied in Barcelona and actually is a Research Professor of National Research Council of Spain (CSIC)

Director of the Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CEAB-CSIC , located atCREAF (Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications)-Autonomous University of Barcelona. Highly cited scientist in ecology/environment, in plant and animal sciences and in all science fields of the ISI essentials science indicators. He is an ecologist working on plant ecophysiology and atmosphere-biosphere interactions. His recent subjects of study are: global change, climate change, atmospheric pollution, biogenic VOCs emissions, remote sensing, and functioning and structure of Mediterranean terrestrial plants and ecosystems.

Some of the most outstanding results of his research are the following ones: discovery of ecophysiological mechanisms linked to the carbon and oxygen use that help to explain the distribution of aquatic plants in rivers and lakes; the development of increasingly used remote sensing techniques to assess plant and ecosystem functioning; the report of current evidences of global change, climate change, and air pollution effects on structure and functioning of Mediterranean ecosystems; or the study of the mechanisms and the function and effects of volatile organic compounds emissions by plants and ecosystems. It is also outstanding his labour in journals and newspapers trying to popularise science issues.

He has published 6 books on ecology, more than 600 papers in scientific journals and books (325 in journals of the Science Citation Index, including Nature, Science and PNAS), and more than 250 articles on popular science in Spanish newspapers (La Vanguardia, Avui, El País, El Periódico...).

He has been visiting professor or visiting scientist in Stanford, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Duke, Lancaster, Avignon, París, Saint Andrews, México, Tokyo, Sheffield, Boulder, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Vancouver, Boulder, Hawaii, Mèxic, Danah Latu, Canberra, Beijing and Berkeley. He was Titular Professor of Ecology in the University of Barcelona until 1990, and is involved on seminars and postgraduate courses in many of the main national and international Universities.

He has supervised 21 Ph D, 23 masters, and 22 post-docs. He is currently member of the editorial board of Ecology Letters, Remote Sensing of the Environment, New Phytologist, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Plant Ecology and Diversity, e-Forestry, Journal of Plant Ecology, Journal of Botany and Atmospheric Pollution Research. Collaborates in the reviewing of articles in many scientific journals, some of them of great prestige such as e.g. Science, Nature, Ecology, Global Change Biology o Tree Physiology, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (USA), among many others. He also evaluates scientific projects for several international and national programmes. He is member of several academies and he has received several awards-prizes both national (Conde de Barcelona 1990, Medi Ambient Institut d'Estudis Catalans-Caixa Sabadell 2008, I Premi Recerca de Catalunya 2010 …) and international (NASA 1993, Science Ministry of Japan 1998…). He was the president of Institució Catalana d'Història Natural and adviser of CADS(Consell Assessor per al Desenvolupament Sostenible) Generalitat of Catalonia.

References

ca:Josep Peñuelas i Reixach