Francesc Torres Torres, also known as Xicu Torres, (born 1962, in

Sant Joan de Labritja Sant Joan de Labritja (, es, San Juan Bautista) is a village and municipality of the Balearic Islands on northern Ibiza. Among others, the resorts of Portinatx and Cala de Sant Vicent are located there. The actual village of Sant Joan is a qui ...

, Ibiza (

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

)) is a telecommunications engineer. He was elected

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya The Technical University of Catalonia ( ca, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, , es, link=no, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest engineering university in Catalonia, Spai ...

(UPC) in December 2017.

Biography

Francesc Torres graduated in 1988 with a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering. He joined the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

(ESA) in the same year. A year later, he returned to the UPC, where he began to teach and carry out research, earning a doctoral degree in 1992. He is a specialist in radiocommunications, high frequency circuits and Earth observation. Within the UPC, he has held several positions of responsibility. From 2005 to 2006, he worked at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

while on sabbatical leave, as an advisor for the

GeoSTAR ''Geostari'' ( Georgian: ჯეოსტარი) is the Georgian franchise of the Idol series, which airs on Rustavi 2. Georgia is the fifth former Soviet country to have acquired an ''Idol'' franchise after Armenia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, ...

project. He later worked as a scientific advisor in the remote sensing group RSLab, where he specialised in the development and subsequent monitoring of the ESA's SMOS sensor, launched in 2009, on the subject of which he has published more than 200 scientific publications. In 2010, he was appointed full professor at the UPC. He is currently a member of the UPC's CommSensLab, a 2017-2020

María de Maeztu María de Maeztu Whitney (18 July 1882, Vitoria - 7 January 1948, Mar del Plata, Argentina) was a Spanish educator, feminist, founder of the Residencia de Señoritas and the Lyceum Club in Madrid. She was sister of the writer, journalist and occa ...

Unit of Excellence. In 2017, he was appointed rector of the UPC, having won 50.23% (1,854) of the weighted votes in the elections held in November of that year.

Awards and distinctions

* 1997 - Teaching Improvement Award from the UPC's board of trustees for the Radiation and Guided Waves Laboratory (ETSETB)^{/sup>
* As a member of the UPC's remote sensing research team RSLab:
** 2000 - Duran Farell Award from the UPC's Board of Trustees
** 2001 - Ciutat de Barcelona Award from the Barcelona City Council
** 2004 - Salva i Campillo Award from the Association of Telecommunications Engineers
** 2011 - Cristòfol Juandó Award in Aeronautics from the Barcelona City Council

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres Torres, Francesc
1962 births
Living people
Rectors of universities in Spain
People from Ibiza
Polytechnic University of Catalonia alumni
Academic staff of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia}