Conxita Àvila, new vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Transfer of the University of Barcelona

Professor Conxita Àvila, who was the rector’s delegate for Strategic Research Actions, took office today as vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Transfer replacing Jordi Alberch, temporary rector from October 1 until the new appointment of the elected rector in the next elections at the Rector’s office of the University of Barcelona.

Among other institutional competencies, as rector’s delegate for Strategic Research Actions, Conxita Àvila was senior office of the University of Barcelona for the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a network in which the University of Barcelona has participated since 2010. During these six years, the representatives of the UB have participated in 180 meetings of expert and work groups in LERU. Last June the Historical Building of the University of Barcelona hosted the last meeting for the Policy Committee and Research vice-rectors meeting of the LERU.

Conxita Àvila, professor at the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, is member of the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) and the Benthic Ecology and Biology Research Group. She is expert in the study of marine invertebrates, marine chemical ecology and Antarctic benthos, and developed her research in several institutions such as the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry of the National Research Council (Italy), the Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, United States), the Marine Laboratory (University of Guam, United States), among other institutions with international projection.

Over the last years, she led the projects Ecoquim, Actiquim and Distantcom to study chemical ecology, philogeography and trophic ecology of marine invertebrate communities in the Antarctic continent, a polar area with habitats that have extreme characteristics which are difficult to study. She participated in 8 Antarctic expeditions (with more than 100 immersions on polar waters) as well as other expeditions in tropical and temperate waters. Her line of work in Antarctic latitudes also aims to identify the molecules involved in the relations between these organisms, assessing their biological activity, and its possible drug use for the development of future drugs, collaborating with several companies.

The team of experts of the UB and IRBIO led by Conxita Àvila made significant contributions to spread the knowledge of Antarctic biodiversity, such as the Weddell Sea findings: new marine invertebrate species, including the first Osedax bone-eating worm (and a new species of the same category in the Mediterranean); the nemertean Antarctonemertes riesgoae, with an atypical reproductive behavior, among others. In addition, the group described new bioactive molecules, spreading the knowledge of marine chemical diversity.

Author of more than a hundred articles in scientific journals with international projection, Conxita Àvila is part of the editorial committee of several scientific publications in the field of marine biology, chemical ecology and natural products with marine origins, and she participates in national and international assessment agencies. She has been member, since 2013, of the SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) Executive Committee of AntEco program (State of the Antarctic Ecosystem).

Image: Conxita Àvila, new vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Transfer of the University of Barcelona.