ICRA News

- Damià Barceló, director of the ICRA, and Mira Petrovic, head of the Water Quality and Security Department of the ICRA, both occupy the number 4 position in Spain. Barceló in the general ranking that classifies the world's best scientists and Petrovic in the specific category of the world's best female scientists.

- Ranking made by Research.com, the leading academic platform for researchers, after analyzing more than 166,000 profiles of scientists from all over the world.

- Research.com's list of the best female scientists in the world 2022 aims to give greater visibility to the scientific achievements of women "although in the general ranking by country, in which we appear 7 Spanish scientists, it is significant that there are no women - she laments the director of ICRA–. In this sense, we must continue working to provide more equal opportunities for women in science".

- For Mira Petrovic: "The low presence of women among the best scientists in Spain is worrying, but the situation is not better in other European countries (...) It's sad but for every female scientist in the rankings there are 10 male scientists" - says the head of the Water Quality and Security Area of ​​the ICRA.

Two researchers from the Catalan Water Research Institute (ICRA) are listed as the fourth best scientists in Spain, according to Research.com, the leading academic platform for researchers. Damià Barceló, director of the ICRA, in the general ranking, which classifies the best scientists in the world, and Mira Petrovic, head of the Water Quality and Safety Area of ​​the ICRA, in the specific category of the best female scientists in the world 2022.

More than 166,000 profiles of scientists have been analyzed to formulate a classification that is carried out according to the metric of the H index provided by Microsoft Academic Graph. This makes ICRA one of the institutions with more researchers in the highest places of this ranking, and reinforces the leading position of the entity in the Spanish scientific panorama.

Damià Barceló, director of ICRA and researcher of environmental problems in the field of water quality

The director of the ICRA, Damià Barceló, is placed in position number 4 in Spain and 419 in the world in a classification that gives an overview of the current state of research by the main scholars in their field. It is a ranking regularly shared by prominent universities around the world such as MIT, Harvard, Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

Barceló has more than 40 years of career dedicated to Environmental Chemistry and his work to solve the main problems in the field of water quality is transcendental. His most important contributions have been especially related to the development of methods to control the organic pollution of the so-called "emergent pollutants" (polar pesticides, surfactants - detergents -, endocrine disruptors and pharmaceutical products, illicit drugs and carbon-based nanomaterials) , in waste and natural waters).

During the last ten years, his research has obtained key results at an international level that has provided valuable follow-up data for the evaluation of surface, residual and underground water risks, as well as providing advanced results in risk studies and remediation of emerging pollutants .

In addition, since 2010 he has been listed among the most internationally cited scientists (ISI Highly Cited), due to the exceptional number and quality of his publications, with a Hirsch index of 141 (113) and a total number of citations exceeding 92.7 thousand (> 62 k) and more than 1380 publications (source Google Scholar on 07/10/2019, Scopus).

The full Research.com world ranking is available here: https://research.com/scientists-rankings/best-scientists

Mira Petrovic, female researcher on the behavior of emerging organic pollutants in wastewater and drinking water treatments

Mira Petrovic, head of ICRA's Water Quality and Security Area and ICREA researcher, also ranks fourth in Spain and 433rd in the world in the ranking of best female researchers. The idea behind this ranking of female scientists is to offer greater visibility to the scientific achievements of women, and to show that they deserve the same opportunities to be represented and praised for their work.

ICREA Research Professor, Petrovic holds a degree in Chemical Engineering (1988), MSc in Environmental Chemistry (1991) and PhD in Chemical Sciences (1995) from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. His main field of research is the study of the fate and behavior of emerging organic pollutants (drugs and endocrine disruptors) in wastewater and drinking water treatments. The specific lines of research include the study of biotic and abiotic transformations of emerging pollutants, identification of transformation products, elucidation of transformation pathways, study of the presence and distribution of emerging pollutants in the aquatic environment and risk assessment environmental

The research area led by Petrovic seeks to provide a complete and efficient response to the problems and challenges related to water quality, particularly in the Mediterranean area.

The full world ranking of female scientists is available here: https://research.com/scientists-rankings/best-female-scientists

Recognition of female scientists

As explained in the description of the world ranking of scientific women: "We are painfully aware that academic research is still a predominantly male profession (...). Our objective is to inspire women who consider a scientific career and those responsible for making decisions around the world with the example of successful women in the scientific community".

With this ranking, Research.com seeks to offer greater visibility to the scientific achievements of women "although in the general ranking by country, in which we appear 7 Spanish scientists, it is significant that there are no women - laments Damià Barceló -. In this sense , we must continue working to provide more equal opportunities for women in science".

For Mira Petrovic: "The low presence of women among the best scientists in Spain is worrying, but the situation is not better in other European countries. If we look at rankings, for example in the area of ​​Chemistry in Germany the first woman occupies the 43rd position , and in France and Belgium there are no women among the first 15 positions. In Environmental Sciences the situation is a little better but there are only between 1 and 3 women among the first 20 positions. In Spain in both categories I am the only woman among the first 15 places (5 and 6, respectively) It's sad, but for every female scientist, 10 scientific men appear in the rankings" - says the head of the Water Quality and Security Area of ​​the ICRA.

About the Catalan Water Research Institute (ICRA)

The ICRA is a multidisciplinary water research center created on October 26, 2006, by the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia. In addition, it is a CERCA center attached to the UdG and has the support of its patrons: the Department of Research and Universities, the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) and the University of Girona (UdG).

It is an international referent that is committed to the investigation of the integral water cycle, in terms of water resources, water quality, in the broadest sense of the word, (chemical, microbiological, ecological, etc.) and treatment technologies and evaluation and the transfer of this knowledge to society and the business and industrial fabric.

The research it carries out refers to all aspects related to water, especially those that have to do with its rational use and the effects of human activity on water resources.