Pere Mir (1919-2017)

Today marks the 100th birthday of Dr Pere Mir Puig, founder and president of the Cellex and Mir-Puig private Foundations, who worked tirelessly to support cutting edge research in Catalonia. While Dr. Mir passed away in 2017 at the age of 97, he left behind a legacy in Catalonia as the most illustrious patron of the sciences of our century.

He was a particularly loyal friend to ICFO where the foundations that he created have played an important role in helping us to develop into the research institute that we are today.

• 2009: ICFO Launched the “Nest” Program, a dedicated research fund to develop and support a tenure-track program to attract rising scientific stars aiming to start and lead independent research groups.
• 2012: Inaugurated of the Cellex NEST Building, fully financed by the Cellex Foundation.
• 2015: Cellex further expanded its support by financing the Cellex ICFO-MPQ Research Fellows program by which selected postdoctoral researchers are able to work jointly at ICFO and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics.
• 2019: Construction began on ICFO West, a new building project donated by the Mir-Puig Foundation, located just next to ICFO’s current facilities. The building will include an enhanced Clean Room Facility and additional lab and workspace. Construction is estimated to be compete in summer 2020.

On this, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pere Mir, ICFOnians celebrate the values and ideals that he represented through his life’s work, as well as the generosity and friendship he extended towards ICFO.