Research Professor at the National Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).
After a stay at the Max-Planck Institute in Berlin, he joined the CSIC in 1981. He has worked at the Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona from which he was director until 2002. He has been director of the Research Centre in Agricultural genomics (CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB) in Barcelona between 2003 and 2013.
He is a member of the Scientific Council of the French CNRS, the Working Group on Ethics and Science of ALLEA and the Ethics Committee of INRA-CIRAD-IFREMER. Member of the Institut D’Estudis Catalans (of which he chairs the section of Biological Sciences since 2017), of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona, of the European Academy, of EMBO, and foreign member of several European Academies.
He received the medal Narcís Monturiol to the scientific and technological merit of the Generalitat of Catalonia (1992), the prize of the Fundació Catalana per la Recerca (2000), the prize of the COSCE of Scientific Divulgation (2013) and the prize Vicent Andrés and Estellés of Narrative Scientific (2006).
Degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona and PhD in Biological Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.