Els ICREA

Els professors d'investigació ICREA formen una comunitat dinàmica de científics i investigadors de totes les àrees del coneixement, que contribueixen al progrés de la humanitat amb els seus estudis, interpretacions i preguntes. Entreu i descobriu-ne els increïbles descobriments i troballes:

Tolsa Domènech, Xavier

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

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Tolsa Domènech, Xavier
Research Professor at
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

I work in mathematical analysis. My research deals with harmonic analysis, geometric measure theory, and elliptic PDE's. Particularly, I am interested in the relationship between analytic notions such as analytic capacity or harmonic measure, and geometric concepts like rectifiability. In a sense, analytic capacity measures how much a set in the plane is visible or invisible for analytic functions. On the other hand, rectifiability tells you if a set is contained in a countable collection of curves with finite length. Around 2002 I proved that analytic capacity is semiadditive. This was an open problem since the early 1960s. Later on I studied related problems in higher dimensions. In particular, in a collaboration with F. Nazarov and A. Volberg I have proved the so called David-Semmes conjecture in the codimension 1 case. This result has important applications to the study of harmonic measure and the Dirichlet problem for the Laplace equation, which are other main interests.

Key words
Fourier analysis, geometric measure theory, analytic capacity, rectifiability, quasiconformal maps

ORCID
: 0000-0001-7976-5433
Toribio Mateas, Josefa

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

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Toribio Mateas, Josefa
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Humanities
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Research interests

My goal in philosophy has long been the same: to explore the nature of the mind within a naturalistic framework. What is most distinctive of my research is my ongoing effort to respect scientific findings about mental phenomena while insisting on the critical importance of the method of analysis and the theoretical tools provided by analytic philosophy. My current research focuses on the analysis of central topics in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of cognitive science, with a special emphasis on the philosophy of perception and rationally responsive unconscious mental states such as implicit attitudes.

Key words
Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology, Philosophy of Cognitive Science

ORCID
: 0000-0002-5180-6755

RESEARCHER ID
: AAA-9756-2020
Toro, Juan Manuel

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

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Toro, Juan Manuel
Research Professor at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Social & Behavioural Sciences
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Research interests

I am interested in studying why language and music have only emerged in humans and not in other animals. I tackle this issue using a variety of experimental techniques and populations that include human adults and infants, and non-human animals. Our studies have demonstrated that some of the building blocks of language learning are found in other animals. For example, we showed that rats extract prosodic information present in speech in a similar way human infants do (a study named one of the five best Ig Nobel prize-winning scientific papers). I am also interested in music, as another ability that might emerge from sensibilities already present in other species. We have shown uniquely-human consonance advantages not shared with other animals, have characterized the biological bases of beat perception and how they set the stage for human rhythmic abilities, and identified how our brains react to the violation of harmonic expectations.

Key words
Comparative Cognition; Language processing; Music cognition; Speech

ORCID
: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5336-5658

RESEARCHER ID
: F-3933-2010
Torrents Arenales, David

Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS)

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Torrents Arenales, David
Research Professor at
Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS)
Life & Medical Sciences
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Research interests

Genomes are the central molecules of life because they carry all the information necessary for the development, the survival and the reproduction of all organisms. Over the lasts 20 years, the study of the genome in a biomedical context has provided valuable information about the genetic and molecular basis of diseases. Current sequencing of DNA allows the incorporation of the genome analysis as an integrated and regular protocol within the health-care system, resulting in a Precision Medicine, where the genomic information will be determinant for a more accurate diagnosis and for the selection of a more precise treatment. In this context, our group and my research activity is focused on the design and implementation of analysis protocols, including artificial intelligence approaches to, ultimately, improve our understanding of the relationship between genomic variation and disease, and to generate the basis for more precise medical care.

Key words
Genomics, Bioinformatics, Cancer Genomics, Genetics, Complex Diseases, Personalized Medicine

ORCID
: 0000-0002-6086-9037

RESEARCHER ID
: G-5785-2015
Torres, Diego F.

Institut de Ciències de l'Espai (CSIC - ICE)

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Torres, Diego F.
Research Professor at
Institut de Ciències de l'Espai (CSIC - ICE)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

The familiar sights of peacefully shining stars would be replaced by something extreme and variable should you look with gamma-ray eyes. You would be glancing at the most energetic phenomena known in astrophysics: accreting masses around black holes, pulsars, close binaries, regions of stellar formation, explosions of supernovae, and others. I develop theoretical models for these scenarios, and test them with observations using ground-based telescopes and satellites. My research focuses on compact objects and cosmic rays. My earlier research includes gravitation and cosmology; particularly, scalar-tensor theories and non-minimal couplings, scalar dark matter, boson stars, gravitational lensing, and wormholes. I published several papers on all these topics. My research group hosted 40+ scientists since its foundation in 2006. You can know more about all this, including links to my publications, from my own or the institute's webpage, https://sites.google.com/view/dft-research https://www.ice.csic.es/

Key words
high energy astrophysics, astronomy, cosmic-rays, gamma-rays, neutrinos

ORCID
: 0000-0002-1522-9065

RESEARCHER ID
: O-9422-2016
Trepat, Xavier

Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC)

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Trepat, Xavier
Research Professor at
Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC)
Engineering Sciences
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Research interests

We aim at understanding how physical forces and molecular control modules cooperate to drive biological function. We develop new technologies to map and perturb the main physical properties that determine how cells and tissues grow, move, invade and remodel. By combining this physical information with systematic molecular perturbations and computational models we explore the principles that govern the interplay between chemical and physical cues in living tissues. We study how these principles are regulated in physiology and development, and how they are derailed in cancer.

Key words
Biophysics, Biomechanics, Cell Migration, Nanotechnology, Biomaterials

ORCID
: 0000-0002-7621-5214

RESEARCHER ID
: I-3912-2015