The ICREAs

ICREA Research Professors form a vibrant community of scientists and researchers in all areas of knowledge that contribute to the advancement of humankind by exploring, interpreting and questioning. Have a look and learn about their amazing discoveries and findings here:

Hinzen, Wolfram

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

CLOSE

Hinzen, Wolfram
Research Professor at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Humanities
view profile

Research interests

I study the structural organization and function of language in the human mind/brain. My current research largely focuses on how disorders of language and cognition illuminate the relation between these two. The theoretical basis of this research is laid down in a series of monographs (Mind Design, 2006), An Essay on Names and Truth, 2007), and The Philosophy of Universal Grammar, 2013), all from Oxford University Press. The mental disorders my group studies was psychosis at first, after which we included autism, dementia, aphasia, and syndromic developmental disorders. I have directed three international projects (NWO, 2006-2011; AHRC/DFG, 2009-2012; AHRC, 2014-2017), and three Spanish ones. In Barcelona I have founded and direct the Grammar & Cognition lab (www.graclab.com), which pursues the project of a typology of linguistic diversity across clinical populations, using a range of methods from behavioural linguistic analysis to MRI to EEG to machine learning.

Key words
Theoretical linguistics; language and cognition; cognitive disorders; clinical linguistics; philosophy of mind and language
Hoefer, Carl

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

CLOSE

Hoefer, Carl
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Humanities
view profile

Research interests

My research has mostly addressed age-old metaphysical questions by examining the metaphysics of nature that flows from our best scientific theories. In particular, I work on the nature of space, time and motion as revealed by physics (especially, Einstein's theories of relativity); and on the nature of objective probability as revealed by its uses in many branches of science and other human activities. My active research interests include these topics: scientific realism (i.e., should we take our best scientific theories to be giving us objective truth about the world?); how to understand quantum non-locality; and the connection between the descriptions of the world given in physics and the descriptions familiar from higher-level sciences and everyday experience. More recently, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic responses, I have begun working on the objectivity of medical and epidemiological research.

Key words
Space, time, probability, chance, relativity, physics; science and policy

ORCID
: 0000-0002-8020-4630
Holmes, Seth M.

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

CLOSE

Holmes, Seth M.
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Social & Behavioural Sciences
view profile

Research interests

A sociocultural anthropologist and medical doctor, Holmes conducts interdisciplinary research on social hierarchies, health inequities, and the ways in which such asymmetries are naturalized, normalized, and resisted in the contexts of transnational im/migration, health care, and agricultural and food systems. He is Principal Investigator of the ERC Project "FOODCIRCUITS: Hidden Connections between Migrants and Societies" (2023 - 2028). He has received national and international awards from the fields of anthropology, sociology, geography, and Latin American Studies, including the Margaret Mead Award, the Robert Textor Prize, and the New Millennium Book Award. Beyond scholarly writing, he has written for popular media such as The Huffington Post and The Guardian, spoken on multiple National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and Radio Bilingüe radio programs, and produced an ethnographic documentary film that received multiple film awards.

Key words
Medical Anthropology, Social Inequalities, Health Inequalities, Global Migration, Food Studies

ORCID
: 0000-0002-2244-2868
Irimia, Manuel

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

CLOSE

Irimia, Manuel
Research Professor at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Life & Medical Sciences
view profile

Research interests

Manuel Irimia's research is centered on two major questions: How does a single genome sequence encode the information to build the enormous complexity of cell types and structures of an adult organism? How are changes in this sequence translated into morphological novelties during evolution? In his lab, they approach these topics focusing on cell and tissue type specific transcriptomes: How are they encoded in the genome? How are they generated during embryogenesis? How do they impact cell function in adult organisms? How do they evolve and how they impact evolution? To answer these questions, they not only study transcriptional regulation, but also other mechanisms that expand transcriptomic diversity, such as alternative splicing and gene duplication, combining computational and experimental approaches using in vitro and in vivo systems (zebrafish, mouse and fruitfly)

Key words
transcriptomics, genomics, evolution, embryo development

ORCID
: 0000-0002-2179-2567

RESEARCHER ID
: E-3040-2010
Irving, David R M

Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC - IMF)

CLOSE

Irving, David R M
Research Professor at
Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC - IMF)
Humanities
view profile

Research interests

My research stands at the nexus of historical musicology, ethnomusicology, and global history, examining the role of music in intercultural contact during the early modern period. I have worked on the musical repercussions of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and British colonialism in Southeast Asia, and the role of music in various early modern Catholic missions. I aim to develop new conceptual frameworks for global histories of music, and to explore the impact of colonialism on musical thought and practice in early modern Europe. I am working on two monographs, Transitory Sounds: Early Music, Global History, and Decolonial Praxis (under contract to University of Michigan Press) and The Making of "European Music" in the Long Eighteenth Century (under contract to Oxford University Press). I have deep interests in early music and also serve as Chair of the International Musicological Society's Study Group "Global History of Music".

Key words
Music and colonialism; early modern global history; intercultural exchange; musical hybridity and syncretism; music and religion

ORCID
: 0000-0003-3849-1549

RESEARCHER ID
: AAP-4370-2020
Iwasawa, Kazushi

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

CLOSE

Iwasawa, Kazushi
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
view profile

Research interests

My research is an observational study of star-forming galaxies and supermassive black holes that power active galactic nuclei (AGN), mainly at X-ray wavelengths as well as at other wavelengths in cosmic survey projects. The X-ray study is aimed to understand the physics in high-energy phenomena observed in galaxies undergoing intense star formation and the vicinity of central black holes in AGN. The multi-wavelength survey projects aim at understanding the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes. Presently, I am an active member of the multiwavelength projects of GOALS (Great Observatories All-sky LIRGs Survey) for local luminous infrared galaxies, SHELLQs (Subaru High-z Exploration for Low-Luminosity Quasars) for the most distant quasars, and eROSITA-Subaru/HSC collaborations for new X-ray selected AGN.

Key words
Astrophyscis, active galaxies, black holes, X-ray, infrared

ORCID
: 0000-0002-4923-3281