Josep A. Planell was born in Barcelona in 1951. He has a degree in Physics from the University of Barcelona (1975) and a PhD in Materials Science from the University of London (1983). He was Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering at Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya).
He was founding director of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) from its establishment in 2005 until 2013, when he took over as president of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He was president of the Latin American higher education network CINDA (Centro Interuniversitario de Desarrollo) from 2016 to 2022.
He was honoured by the Government of Catalonia for the Promotion of University Research in 2001. He received the City of Barcelona Award for technological research in 2006, and the George Winter Award from the European Society for Biomaterials in 2013 for outstanding research contributions to the field. He has held the status of Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE), awarded by the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering, since 2004, and has been a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona since 2009.
He has also been vice-president of the European Society for Biomaterials (2005-2009), editor-in-chief of the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine (2007-2013), and a member of the editorial board of a number of other journals.
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