Chemical Engineer Prof. Javier Lafuente Sancho has been elected Rector of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in the online elections that took place on 27-28 October.
Prof. Francisco Javier Lafuente Sancho, from the Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, will be appointed Rector of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) for the next four years, following the results of elections that for the first time were held online. Prof. Lafuente will replace current UAB Rector Prof. Margarita Arboix.
The Rector of the UAB is elected by the University community through general suffrage. The final results of the voting were announced by the UAB General Elections Board on 30 October. The details of the results by institution and sector can be consulted here.
Lafuente is professor at the Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering. He earned his degree in Chemistry, with a specialisation in Technical Chemistry, in 1982 and received a PhD Cum Laude in Chemical Engineering in 1988, under the supervision of Prof. Manel Poch (UdG) and Prof. Carles Solà (UAB).
He is Director of the Group of Biological Treatment of Wastewater and Gases, Elimination of Nutrients, Odours and Volatile Organic Compounds (GENOCOV), and Director of the centre for technology transfer of the TECNIO network, belonging to the Government of Catalonia's Technology Centre for the Comprehensive Treatment of Gas Emissions, Liquid and Solid Waste (BIO-GLS). Prof. Lafuente worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, at the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INP), the University of California (UC) and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago.
His research focuses on the application of biological systems for the treatment of contaminated wastewater. He is author of 141 publications in indexed journals with over 3,500 citations and has directed 12 doctoral theses and several Master’s projects. Prof. Lafuente also created two environmental spin-offs for the application of cutting-edge wastewater treatment technologies.