January 1st brought us, along with the expectations of the new year, the news of the death of Dr. Joan Guinovart. With Joan we are leaving an excellent scientist, a visionary on scientific policy and especially a unique, multifaceted person, with multiple interests and a humanistic culture, unusual in the scientific environment.
Joan defined himself as “a man from Tarragona”, the place of his birth and where he kept his roots anchored until his last days. Disagreeing with his mother about whether he should be a chemist or pharmacist, he studied both careers and earned a doctorate in pharmacy. Like many other colleagues, he began his honorem course with a postdoc in the USA, but unlike them, he decided to return to Barcelona and bring with him another conception of science, totally disruptive at that time.
He held the chair of the biochemistry department at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and later that of the homonymous university of the University of Barcelona, where in a few years he managed to transform a department anchored in obsolete models into one of the flagships of Catalan science. He was president of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry, of the European Federation of Biochemical Societies, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain and one of those who most influenced the definition of the Catalan research model.
However, history will probably remember him as the founder and first director of IRB Barcelona, one of the most active research centers in Europe. Thinking about Joan brings to mind María de la Pau Janer, who tells us about translucent people, those who go through life like a shadow, without leaving any trace, and about solid people, those who fill the space with their presence. and they are the center of conversations. Without a doubt, Joan was one of the latter; she was, in Ortega’s language, a unique person, one who sets impossible challenges for herself, who flees from conformity and acceptance of the status quo.
More than thirty years of relationship with Joan have allowed me to assign him dozens of adjectives, to define many facets of his personality, but in this award I would highlight his love of science, his leadership capacity, his vision to define objectives and not pay attention to the cost to get them.
Joan saw before anyone else the need for the scientist to leave the laboratory, to not only interact with society, but to become an integral part of it. Personally, I will always value Joan’s contagious enthusiasm, her ability to analyze all scenarios, and especially her intelligence; He was one of the most brilliant minds I have ever met.
Joan, wherever you sail, all of us who have known you wish you long wind, clear stars and calm seas.
#Joan #Guinovart #scientist #left #laboratory
