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:

Winter, Andreas

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

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Winter, Andreas
Research Professor at
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

I work on quantum information, especially quantum Shannon theory, which aims at incorporating information-theoretic ideas into physics. The Shannon theoretic approach has succeeded in quantifying entanglement as a resource in information processing task, and likewise for other properties of quantum systems such as channel and storage capacities of quantum systems. One of my favourite topics is the interplay between classical and quantum information, evident in the intricate structure of local operations in composite systems, such as data hiding or "information locking". I also work on additivity and non-additivity of quantum channel capacities, quantum data compression, and zero-error quantum communication. Further interests include statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, resource theories, entropy characterization and entanglement measures. But at heart I am a mathematician and will still get fascinated by classic problems: existence of Hadamard matrices, incompleteness, ...

Key words
quantum information, quantum theory, discrete mathematics, probability

ORCID
: orcid.org/0000-0001-6344-4870

RESEARCHER ID
: C-4185-2016
Yaroshchuk, Andriy

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)

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Yaroshchuk, Andriy
Research Professor at
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

The keyword is behaviour of fluids at nano-scale. I study the transfer of ions and water molecules through nano-metric (tens of nanometers) barrier layers of composite nanofiltration membranes. Another example is the transfer of ions and water through nano-porous track-etched membranes having identical cylindrical pores. I also study processes of current-induced concentration polarization of nano-/micro-interfaces where concentration polarization is strongly-coupled to electroosmosis and fine separation of solutes like peptides can occur. Recently, I discovered that a layered structure consisting of a micro-perforated ion-exchange membrane and a nanoporous layer can have very interesting properties useful for AC electroosmotic pumping . Another topic is experimental and theoretical studies of ion transfer across polyelectrolyte multilayers where we have recently discovered very high (>1000) selectivities in the electrically-driven transfer of ions of different charge magnitudes.

Key words
nanofluidics, electrokinetics, electrochemistry, membrane, nanofiltration, colloid

ORCID
: 0000-0002-6364-6840

RESEARCHER ID
: L-5955-2014
Zabala, Santiago

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

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Zabala, Santiago
Research Professor at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
Humanities
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Research interests

My research focuses in three areas each of which has generated several authored and edited books and journals special issues. These areas are political, social, and aesthetic Continental Philosophy. I study each of these following the hermeneutic principle according to which Being is not an objective entity that philosophy must describe but rather the effect of interpretations. Following the work of Gadamer, Vattimo, and Rorty, I emphasize the ontological and political nature of hermeneutics in order to demonstrate the danger of dogmatic beliefs for religious and political practices. My next books and essays will explore “fake news” and “post-truth” in this so-called age of alternative facts to argue, as Bruno Latour said, that "facts remain robust only when they are supported by a common culture, by institutions that can be trusted, by a more or less decent public life, by more or less reliable media.”

Key words
Philosophical hermeneutics, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, and political philosophy

ORCID
: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1780-4588

RESEARCHER ID
: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/L-2327-2017
Zilhão, João

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

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Zilhão, João
Research Professor at
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Humanities
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Research interests

The Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition has been the focus of my research for the last 20 years, leading to fieldwork at several sites: (a) the Lagar Velho rock-shelter (Portugal) and its burial of an early modern human child with diagnostic Neandertal features (evidence for interbreeding at the time of Neandertal/modern contact); (b) the Almonda karst system (Portugal), whose archeology spans half-a-million years and includes such important fossils as the 400,000 year-old Aroeira 3 cranium; (c) the Pestera cu Oase (Romania), site of Europe's oldest modern humans; (d) Cueva Antón and Cueva de los Aviones (Murcia, Spain), with the earliest known use of personal ornaments, 115,000 years ago; (e) several caves in Iberia, France and Italy where U-Th dating of associated speleothems showed rock art to be >65,000 years old. These early artists were Neandertals, whose behavioral modernity and late persistence to the south of the Ebro drainage remain my main areas of interest.

Key words
Palaeolithic Archaeology

ORCID
: 0000-0001-5937-3061

RESEARCHER ID
: L-5670-2014
Ziveri, Patrizia

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

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Ziveri, Patrizia
Research Professor at
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

Global environmental change on marine ecosystems, ecology, and biogeochemistry at various time scales and complexity is a key theme of her research group, focusing on multidisciplinary investigation of marine calcifying organisms at the base of the food web. With her work on the ocean in a changing climate and under human pressure, she is linking CO₂ dynamics, climate change and target marine processes and systems. Interest on pressing threats to the marine environment and their societal relevance has led to developing research on ocean acidification, warming and oxygen loss in different regions. The study of marine litter and the cycle of marine microplastics is another research area in her group and a new clean laboratory for microplastic studies opened recently at ICTA-UAB. These interactive global and local change processes alter the marine systems affecting economic activities and human welfare.

Key words
climate and global change, high CO2 ocean, calcifying plankton, marine micropaleontology, biogeochemistry, marine microplastics