National Senior Research Award 2016 to Lluís Torner

By December 22, 2016December 23rd, 2016ICFO

ICFO Director has been honored with Catalonia’s highest recognition for research excellence, the National Senior Research Award, which specifically recognizes a significant contribution to scientific progress on an international scale – in human and social, life and health, engineering, technology or experimental sciences.

The Foundation for Research and Innovation of Catalonia (FCRi) and the Catalan Government organize every year the National Research Awards to honor individual scientists and institutions that have made outstanding contributions to society. ICFO group leaders Prof Romain Quidant and Prof Frank Koppens received the awards for Young Talent in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Researchers from BIST centers Prof Núria López-Bigas (IRB Barcelona) and Prof Ben Lehner (CRG) were also awarded with the Young Talent prize in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

Dr Lluís Torner conceived and founded ICFO and has been its director since its inception in 2002. Under his leadership, the institute has become a forerunner in global frontier photonic research and its numerous applications in biomedicine, renewable energy, nanotechnology, graphene, quantum technology and information technology.

Awardees of 2016 edition include ICREA Prof at IBEC Samuel Sánchez Ordóñez, winner of the National Research Award for Young Talent; the “la Caixa” Foundation in the category of Scientific Patronage; the program “Dinàmiks” from Televisió de Catalunya in the category of Scientific Communication; and Centre Tecnològic de l’Aigua (Cetaqua) in the category of Public-Private partnerships.