Josep Samitier Martí is director of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Barcelona (Spain). Full professor at the Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona (UB). Background in Physics (M.S. Degree in Physics, University of Barcelona and Ph.D. in Physics, University of Barcelona). Group leader of the Nanobioengineering group at IBEC and group leader in the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBERBBN).His main research areas are Biosensors, Microfluidics and Organ-on-chip.
Prof. Samitier has participated in and coordinated several European and national projects related to integrated microsystems and more recently to Nanobiotechnology devices. He has published more than 350 scientific articles, has directed 39 doctoral theses and is co-inventor of 6 licensed patents. He was deputy director of CIBER-BBN, vice-rector for International Policy at the University of Barcelona (UB), vice-rector for Innovation at the UB, acting rector of the UB, Spanish delegate to the Working Group on Biotechnology (OECD), director of the "Health Campus of Excellence" HUBc (UB), coordinator of the Master in Biomedical Engineering (UB-UPC)and founder member of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology in Health (EIT-HEALTH).
Currently, he is coordinator of the Spanish Nanomedicine Platform (NanomedSpain), scientific coordinator at national level of the Complementary Plan for Biotechnology Applied to Healthcare, which is boosted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain together with 7 autonomous communities on new tools for precision medicine, president of the Catalan Association of Research Centres (Associació Catalana d'Entitats de Recerca - ACER) and a full member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC).
He was awarded the City of Barcelona prize in the Technological Innovation category in 2003 and the Narcís Monturiol medal in 2020