Biography
President of the European University Association (Brussels, 2015-2019)
Rector (Rector emeritus) of the University of Luxembourg (2005-2014)
President of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC, Madrid, 2000-2003)
Rolf Tarrach got his PhD from the University of Barcelona. He has been postdoctoral researcher at CERN, Geneva and has been professor of theoretical physics at the University of Barcelona. He has published some 100 papers in theoretical high-energy physics, quantum field theory, quantum mechanics and quantum information theory and has written five books. He has supervised 12 PhD theses. He has given more than 150 talks and seminars on physics and more than 200 conferences on other subjects. He has been awarded a honoris causa from the University of Saint Petersburg, Russia, and the University of Liège, Belgium, and is the recipient of some 15 prizes and decorations from Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg. He has been Vice-rector at the University of Barcelona. He is a former member of the European Union Research Advisory Board, of the European Heads of Research Councils group and of the 5-year assessment panel of experts of the European Commission. He is a former member of the Board of Telefonica of Catalonia. He has been co-organizer of the first three Euroscience Open Forum meetings in Stockholm, Munich and Barcelona. He has been chair of the International Experts Board of Estrategia Universidad 2015 (Spain) and member of the International Jury of Initiatives d’excellence (ANR, France). He is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology. He advises a large company in Barcelona on innovation and is member of a few think tanks and a few advisory boards. He has participated in the evaluation of universities and research systems in Spain, Kuwait, Austria, Germany, France and Finland.
He recently was member of the Search Committee of the DG of ESA and became member of the Governing Board of two private universities.