The team
Senior professor of Organic Chemistry and Bioeconomy at Lleida University since 2002. After finishing his degree in June 1975, Ihe was hired by the Cooperativa Agropecuaria de Guissona (current CAG) as head of the pharmaceutical-veterinary laboratory in September of that year. He joined the CID-CSIC (Barcelona) in early 1976 to do his bachelor's thesis, which he combined with my Military Service. He started his PhD in the same center in the group of prof. Francisco Camps thanks to a competitive FPI scholarship in 1977. His main activity was to investigate the so-named insecticides of 4th generation. Once the thesis, he remained in the same center and the same subject thanks to a post-doc scholarship. In January 1981, he joined the research department of UQUIFA company as responsible for developing a synthesis of Naproxen. In this company, he gained experience in the problems of scaling processes from the laboratory to up 5000 L reactors. In September 1981, he started as a part time assistant professor in the University of Barcelona (Faculty of Education), becoming a professor in charge of a full-time course in January 1982. In September 1982, he joined the group of Professor Williams Bowers at Cornell University (USA) thanks to a Fulbright scholarship. The research performed in Bowers' research group was also focused on the synthesis of 4th generation insecticides. The Agricultural School (ETSEA) of Lleida, then belonging to the UPC, offered him an Assistant Lecture contract in June 1983. This led him to leave the scholarship that had been renewed and to join to the UPC in December of 1983. He earned a position as Associate Professor of the UPC and, at the beginning of 2002, he became a Full Professor at the same center, which belonged to the University of Lleida, created in 1992. At the time of his incorporation into this center, the facilities available to conduct research were practically non-existent, so one of his activities during the first 15 years were to obtain adequate facilities from the point of view of laboratories and equipment. This will greatly mark his research career, dedicating a part of it to developing analytical methodologies in collaboration with groups of microbiology, entomology and, more recently, plant biotechnology. At the same time, he continued to develop activity in the preparation of new products from biomass, initially from glycerol and acylglycerides and, later, using lignocellulose biomass. The collaboration initiated with the microbiologists let him to develop a whole line of research based on the use of biocatalysts based on fungal mycelia. During these years, he also spent two stays of three-month with professors Peter Scott (Canada) and Roger Sheldon (Holland) where he gained experience in the analysis of mycotoxins and the use of biocatalysts, respectively. All this was combined with the corresponding lectures and his participation in management tasks. In this aspect, it would highlight his participation as Vice Chancellor of the UdL in the period 2003-2011.
