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BIST Board of Trustees Meeting
BIST Board of Trustees Meeting

Gabriel M. Silberman appointed new General Director of the BIST

BIST Board of Trustees announces new director and incorporation of IBEC

June 26, 2017
At its annual meeting held today at the new Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) headquarters (the Escola Industrial), the BIST Board of Trustees, chaired by Andreu Mas-Colell, approved the appointment of Gabriel M. Silberman as the new BIST General Director. In addition, the Board approved the expansion of the BIST Foundation with the incorporation of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).

Prior to joining BIST, Gabriel M. Silberman was Senior Vice President and Chief Scientist of Cerebri AI, a company developing artificial intelligence products, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University. He brings with him extensive experience in the intersection between public and private research.

As Executive Director of Dell Research (2013-2016), Silberman was responsible for strategic alliances with universities to define and drive innovation across the company’s various departments and venues. Previously, he had been a promoter of such collaborations in large companies such as IBM, where he held various positions for 15 years (Director of the Center for Advanced Studies program [2000-2005], Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Toronto [1997-2000], and Researcher and Group Manager at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center [1990-1997]). He subsequently created and managed CA Labs, a new research organization for CA Technologies (2005-2012), which carried out more than 30 projects with the participation of a hundred academic researchers from 34 institutions around the world. [You may download the full CV of Gabriel M. Silberman here].

Silberman replaces Miquel A. Pericàs, Director of the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), who was, throughout the past year, also responsible for the management of the BIST. Pericàs presented to the Board of Trustees an exhaustive report on the work carried out during the last 12 months, highlighting the deployment of the organic structure of the BIST, the institution’s strategic projects in the fields of Chemical Biology and Advanced Microscopy, and the promotion of collaborative multidisciplinary research between the BIST centers. Likewise, he highlighted the high quality of projects that were selected for the first edition of the Ignite Program, the success of the BIST Founding Conference, and the implementation in collaboration with the UPF of the first Master of Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences, for which classes are scheduled to start this September.

The President of the BIST Board, Andreu Mas-Colell, stressed the importance of two milestones achieved this year. First, he spoke of the approval by the European Union of the two projects submitted by the BIST to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND call, through which 10 million euros will be received in the next five years to fund 28 pre-doctoral research fellowships and 61 postdoctoral fellowships. "These programs reinforce our ability to attract international scientific talent, which is the key piece of any project that, like the BIST, aims to boost the excellence and social impact of research," said Mas-Colell.

The President also spoke very positively about the agreement with the Barcelona Regional Council (Diputación de Barcelona) signed a year ago, which has allowed BIST to install itself in its new headquarters at the ‘Escola Industrial’. The new BIST headquarters has approximately 300 m2, with offices, workrooms and classrooms. This space is expected to expand in the future as the Institute’s programs grow. New patrons With the incorporation of IBEC, the BIST Community expands to 2,347 people, 40% with international origin and 43% of which are women. The expanded BIST has 147 principal investigators, 565 postdoctoral researchers and 588 predoctoral students (PhD). IBEC brings to BIST its expertise and research excellence in the juncture between biology and engineering in areas such as the design of nanodevices for drug delivery, biosensors, cellular engineering, biomimetics, and regenerative medicine, among others. IBEC, which, like all other BIST members, is accredited as a Severo Ochoa center of excellence, has 11 grants from the European Research Council, which were received by its researchers between 2007 and 2016.

At the meeting today, the incorporation of a new scientific member of the BIST board was also approved, namely, of Professor M. Carme Calderer, physicist, and mathematician with a PhD from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (Scotland), who currently teaches at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). With a long academic career and numerous publications, Dr. Calderer has focused her research on the mathematical modeling of fluid and crystal behavior.