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- Dr. Joan Guinovart is presented with the first Israel Pecht Award, a prestigious recognition by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) for significant contributions to the molecular biosciences community.
- IRB Barcelona Founding Director and Emeritus Professor, as well as Emeritus Professor at the University of Barcelona, Dr. Guinovart has made a substantial impact on the field of biochemistry through his leadership, research, and collaborative efforts.
On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), has created a new prize: The Israel Pecht Award, to acknowledge outstanding contributions to the molecular biosciences community".
This new award aims to commend individuals whose remarkable efforts and dedication have greatly enhanced the activities of their respective FEBS Constituent Societies and fostered impactful collaboration with this organisation. Awardees are selected from nominations put forward by the FEBS Constituent Societies.
FEBS has recently announced that the recipients of the 2024 award are Dr. Joan Guinovart, nominated by the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM), and Dr. László Fésüs, nominated by the Hungarian Biochemical Society (MBKE).
Dr. Joan Guinovart is an Emeritus Professor of IRB Barcelona and the University of Barcelona. His major research interest has been glycogen metabolism, and he was the Founding Director of IRB Barcelona and a Group Leader at the same Institute from 2005 to 2018.
During his tenure as President of SEBBM from 1996 to 2000, he orchestrated a significant transformation of the society, resulting in a doubling of its membership.
He forged partnerships with the French and Italian Biochemical Societies, leading to joint meetings, and established fruitful collaborations with the Argentinian and Chilean Societies. He also launched the influential SEBBM magazine, serving as its chief Editor between 1997 and 2012, and he chaired the Organising Committee of the FEBS Congress in Barcelona in 1996 and the Scientific Committee of the joint FEBS and IUBMB Congress in Seville in 2012.
Founded in 1964, FEBS is one of Europe’s largest organisations in the molecular life sciences, with over 30,000 members across 39 biochemistry and molecular biology societies (its ‘Constituent Societies’) in countries across Europe and neighbouring regions. FEBS, as a grass-roots organisation, provides a voice to a large part of the academic research and teaching community in Europe and beyond.
As a non-profit academic organisation, FEBS promotes and supports biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, molecular biophysics and related fields of research through its journals, congresses, advanced courses, fellowships, and other initiatives. Emphasis is placed on its many programmes of scientific exchange and cooperation between scientists working in different countries, and on fostering the training of early-career scientists.
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
