Creu de Sant Jordi
ICFO Director Lluís Torner receives one of Catalonia’s highest recognitions
The Generalitat of Catalonia created the Creu de Sant Jordi (Cross of Saint George ) distinction in 1981 in order to distinguish people and entities of exceptional merit who have rendered outstanding service to Catalonia, defending its identity or in the civic and cultural arena. This prestigious award is one of the highest recognitions granted by the Catalan government. This year, it was awarded to twenty individuals and ten entities.
In a formal ceremony that took place yesterday at the Teatre Monumental de Mataró, the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, honored ICFO’s director Lluís Torner with the Creu de Sant Jordi for “his leadership in research in photonic sciences, an area that is key to addressing the challenges of humanity during the 21st century. He is internationally recognized as a leading scientist. He was awarded the Narcís Monturiol Medal in 2009, the Optical Society of America Leadership Award in 2011, and the National Research Award in 2016, among other recognitions. He has placed the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), which he himself created, as a world reference in its discipline.”
Asked to comment on this award, Prof Torner declared that “this recognition is for all ICFO. It is in my name because I am privileged to have a particularly visible role in the organization, but it is actually for each and every ICFOnian. I am extremely proud of our institution and the exceptional people who are part of it, both the more than 400 who are in house right now and the more than 2000 who have passed through ICFO over the years and who are now working all over the world. I am also grateful to the long list of people and institutions, national and international, who have helped us build this gem. For the first 20 years, we have largely achieved the goals we set ourselves when we were born, which now gives us the ability to tackle even more important and fascinating scientific and organizational challenges. Stay tuned!”
ICFOnians proudly congratulate Lluís for this important recognition.