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
Wulzer, Andrea

Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE)

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Wulzer, Andrea
Research Professor at
Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE)
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
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Research interests

I am a particle physicist. My mission is to unveil the microscopic laws that govern the fundamental particles and their interactions. I study what these laws could be, and how they manifest as concrete predictions for a multitude of experimental measurements that are being and will be performed at particle colliders. Devising strategies to extract maximal information on fundamental physics laws from the data collected at the Large Hadron Collider is a main focus of my research. Another goal is to identify new pathways for further progress at ambitious future collider projects and in particular at a muon collider of very high energy. I attack these questions by employing and developing theoretical tools for predictions based on the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics and special relativity, combined in what is known as "Quantum Field Theory", as well as statistical tools for comparing the predictions with the experimental data.

Key words
Beyond the Standard Model Theory and Phenomenology; Collider Physics;

ORCID
: 0000-0002-4523-1940

RESEARCHER ID
: GIK-5322-2022
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.The most recent research topic is energy harvesting from water evaporation. It has been suggested that the area of contact between nanoporous electrodes and electrolyte solutions can be effectively controlled via solvent (water) evaporation. This opens new opportunities for energy harvesting from waste heat in coupled wetting/drying and charging/discharging cycles with nanoporous electrodes. This emerging process is critically controlled by the ion dynamics in ultrathin water films staying behind receding menisci, which reveals itself as almost completely unexplored and as a focal point of a new branch of electrochemistry, namely that of partially wet electrodes.

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 books, articles, and research focus on the meaning of art, politics, and freedom in the twenty-first century where, as I claim, "the greatest emergency has become the absence of emergency." The goal of philosophy is to thrust us into these absent emergencies (such as climate change or economic inequality) in order to disrupt the ongoing “return to order” that surveillance capitalism and right-wing populism are imposing upon us. These problems are discussed in my most recent book—Being at Large: Freedom in the Age of Alternative Facts (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020 - translated into Spanish and Italian) —and in many articles.

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
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

Her broad scientific interest is on marine global environmental change, ecology, and biogeochemistry at various time scales and complexity. She focuses on multidisciplinary investigation from target marine organisms at the base of the food web, to marine microplastics and biogeochemical processes. With her research group she works on the ocean in a changing climate and under human pressure, linking CO2 dynamics, climate change and target marine processes. She is interested in pressing threats to the marine environment and their societal relevance, such as ocean acidification, warming and oxygen loss in different regions, both in coastal systems and open seas, from social to biogeochemical processes. With her group, she developed a specific laboratory to address marine microplastics. She also supports socially relevant marine studies in coastal Africa. Her research is bridging the natural and social systems on issues of major societal and sustainable development concern.

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

ORCID
: 0000-0002-5576-0301