Ferrer Llop, Josep

Born in Barcelona (1949). Industrial Engineer (1971) and PhD in Industrial Engineering (1975). Professor in Applied Maths (1986), in the Department of Applied Mathematics I of the UPC (Polytechnical University of Catalonia). In a situation of Emeritus since 2019. After some years working in Topological Vector Spaces, in the 80’ he tackled the study of Singularities of Analytic and Differentiable Varieties, and in particular their Semiuniversal Deformations, making special attention to the Catastrophes Theory of R. Thom and its applications. In the next decade this experience was applied to Linear Systems Theory, following the works of V. Arnold for endomorphisms. This geometrical approach to the study of pairs of matrices, invariant subspaces, etc., has generated many papers in international publications of great level, invited conferences, PhD. etc. At the same time, since 1971 he has developed an intensive labour of teaching and coordination of several subjects in mathematical area (Linear Algebra, Infinitesimal Calculus, Geometry, Linear Systems,...) mainly in the Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona. He has driven several experiences in pedagogical innovation and in new teaching material. It is specially remarkable his interest to rely the mathematical subjects with their applications in engineering, by means of practical use of the concepts and theorems, as well as advanced exercises and problems being available to under-graduate students. This academical activity has always been complemented with gerent labours and with social commitment. In particular, for more than 20 years he has been an active union leader, looking for better labour conditions for the university teachers, as well as for the improvement of the public University. Afterwards, he was Director of Department (2000/2002) and Dean of the UPC (2002/2006).