According to the news published today, professor  Núria Sebastián Gallés is the new vice-president of the European Research Council (ERC).

Elected by the Scientific Council of the ERC, professor Núria Sebastian Gallés will join the two already appointed vice-presidents, professors  Pavel Exner and  Carl-Henrik Heldin, who are responsible for the areas of Physics and Engineering and Life Sciences respectively, to assist the president of the ERC, professor  Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, appointed in early 2014. The area of expertise for which Núria Sebastian will be responsible is that of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The  European Research Council is the first pan-European body for funding frontier research. Its aim is to foster  scientific excellence in Europe fomenting competition between the best and most creative researchers of any age and nationality.

Núria Sebastián Gallés is a pioneer in research into bilingual learning in new-borns. She currently researches at  Pompeu Fabra University as director of a group researching Speech Acquisition and Perception (SAP) at the  Centre for Brain and Cognition.  She has been a member of the Scientific Council of the ERC since she was appointed at the end of 2012.

A brilliant academic and professional track record

Núria Sebastián Gallés received her PhD in Experimental Psychology at the University of Barcelona in 1986. After post-doctoral training at the Max Plank Institute and the CNRS in Paris, she was appointed associate professor at the faculty of psychology (University of Barcelona) in 1988, where she was promoted to full professor in 2002..

In 2009 she joined Pompeu Fabra University where she is now chair in Basic Psychology at the Department of Communication and Information Technologies (DTIC). In addition, professor Núria Sebastián has directed UPF's Doctoral School since July 2013.  

She has been Visiting Scholar at several research centres, including the IRCS at University of Pennsylvania, the ICN at University College (London) and at the University of Chicago. She has received international recognition as shown by a James S. McDonnell Foundation Award ("Bridging Mind, Brain and Behavior" Programme) in 2001 and by giving the prestigious Nijmegen Lectures in 2005. In 2009, she was also awarded the ICREA Academia Prize and in 2012 she received the Narcís Monturiol Medal in recognition of her scientific contributions.

She was member of the advisory group of the 'Brain and Learning' initiative of the OECD from 2002 to 2006. Until December 2012 she was president of the European Society of Cognitive Psychology. She is the coordinator of a Consolider-Ingenio 2010 research consortium investigating Bilingualism and Cognitive Neuroscience (BRAINGLOT), integrating six interdisciplinary research groups (including linguists, psychologists, physicians etc).

At the  Centre for Brain and Cognition at Pompeu Fabra University she leads the Speech Acquisition and Perception (SAP) research group where she is working on the language learning process with a special emphasis on bilingual populations. Her laboratory research extends from infants to adults with methodologies based on behavioural as well as physiological and brain imaging responses.

At the end of 2012  Núria Sebastián was appointed a member of the governing body of the European Research Council on the Scientific Council. Recently, professor  Isabelle Vernós, a researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), in which UPF participates, has joined the Scientific Council of the ERC.