Drs. Jordi Carratalà, the coordinator of the Infectious Diseases and Transplants Program, and Fernando Fernández Aranda, principal investigator of the Psychiatry and Mental Health Group, both from IDIBELL and the Bellvitge University Hospital, have recently won the respective chairs of the Faculty of Medicine and Sciences of the Health of the University of Barcelona (UB).

Dr. Carratalà, the new professor of Medicine, combines his medical work with classes at the UB (where until now he was a professor) and research since he is the principal investigator of the Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Pathology (REIPI), a member of the scientific and executive committees of REIPI, and coordinator of the SGR Research Group on Infectious Pathology and Antibiotic Sensitivity of the UB. He also leads the IDIBELL Respiratory Infections and Immunocompromised Host research group.

On the other hand, he has published about 400 scientific articles; He has won 47 competitive research projects and has supervised 15 doctoral theses. Dr. Carratalà has received 14 research awards or honorary degrees, such as the 2019 Award for Professional Excellence in Research from the Official College of Physicians of Barcelona (COMB) and the ESCMID Fellow in 2016, awarded by the European Society of Diseases Infectious and Clinical Microbiology (ESCMID).

Dr. Fernández Aranda has won the Chair in the Area of ​​Psychology at the UB, the first Chair for a medical specialist in this specialty in the entire state, and both the curricular merits and his teaching and research project were worthy of the highest level academic.

Dr. Fernández Aranda’s professional career began in Germany in 1991, where he completed his doctoral thesis and spent his early years as a clinical psychologist working in the field of eating disorders, behavioral addictions, and psychosomatic disorders. In 1996 he joined the Bellvitge Hospital and since then has worked both in patient care and in undergraduate and graduate teaching, as well as in national and international research. He is currently the president of the World Society for Research on Eating Disorders and is considered one of the world leaders in this field.

Text adapted from the news published by the Bellvitge University Hospital