Biography

Josep M. Ricart was awarded his degree in Chemistry in 1980 from the University of Barcelona. From the same university, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1985, studying the applications of band theory to solids (graphite, diamond, silicon) and surfaces, their reconstruction and chemisorption of atoms thereon using semiempirical approaches, in particular, he developed a periodic version of the MINDO/3 method. The thesis was done under the supervision of Professor Francesc Illas. He began his academic carrier at the University of Barcelona (1981). In 1985 he obtained a position in Tarragona. He did short postdoctoral stages with Prof. Pisani (Torino, 1986), Prof. Pacchioni (Milano 1994) Prof. Roesch (Munich, 2001, 2003)

He became Associate Professor (Profesor Titular) in Physical Chemistry at the University of Barcelona, Tarragona’s Campus, in 1988. Now he is Full Professor (Catedrático de Universidad) at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili since 2002.

He has published more than 130 peer-review articles, more than 60 communications in conferences, 10 book chapters. He has been supervisor or co-supervisor of 10 doctoral theses.
During its scientific carrier he as used both cluster model and periodic models to model surfaces and surface phenomena as electrochemistry, spectroscopy or chemisorption and reactivity. He has collaborated mainly with F. Illas (UB), A. Clotet (URV) and J. Rubio (UB). Papers have been published in collaboration with more than 100 coauthors.

His main research interests are nowadays: The application of quantum chemistry to the modeling of surfaces and to the structure, properties, and reactivity of adsorbed atoms and molecules thereon. Modeling of electrochemical processes on surfaces. Modeling of heterogeneous catalytic processes. Modeling of nanoparticles and supported nanoparticles and chemical reactivity thereon. Applying machine learning force fields (ReaxFF) to heterogeneous catalysis.

Last work (> 2012) has dealt with the molecular mechanism of several chemical reactions catalyzed by transition metal nanoparticles (mainly Cu, Ag and Au) supported on a series of transition metal carbides (mainly TiC, VC, ZrC and -MoC) using accurate enough state-of-the-art electronic structure methods and of realistic models. Due to the large number of atoms involved even in the simplest models it has been not possible to make use of wave function-based methods and we have used less accurate DFT based methods. However, the recent developments in density functional theory and the new methods to locate and characterize transition state structures have reached a maturity where complex surface reactions including several elementary steps can be described in detail thus allowing one to simulate the complete catalytic cycle. These theoretical tools have already provided examples where theoretical modeling has been used to design new catalysts.

In the field of university management, he has been Vice-dean of the Faculty of Chemistry from 1998 to 2004; Dean from 2004 to 2006. Vice-rector for Academic Policy and Research from 2006 to 2014, (drafting the programs for graduate and postgraduate courses, coordinating the academic activities and the curricula, and structuring the teaching and research plan; responsible for the relations with the research institutes of the University) and vice-rector for Scientific Policy and Research, impulsing the Research and Innovation strategic plan of the University. Nowadays is the coordinator of the Màster in Synthesis, Catalysis and Molecular Desing, organized by the URV and ICIQ. He also coordinates in the URV, the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Sustainable Catalysis (SUCAT), coordinated by the University of Poitiers, in collaborarion with the University of Aveiro.