Dr Alfonso Méndiz Noguero (Barcelona, 1961) is from today, 1 September, the rector of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC Barcelona). The University’s Board of Trustees announced the appointment of the future rector last May, revealing that Dr Méndiz would take over from Dr Xavier Gil, who served two consecutive terms as rector at the helm of the institution since 2015.

Alfonso Méndiz holds a pre-EHEA undergraduate and doctoral degree in Information Sciences from the University of Navarra, a postgraduate degree in Production for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA), and is a full professor of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. Until now, he has been the dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences and gave classes on the theory and history of advertising in the Faculty. This coming academic year he plans to maintain his teaching and student mentoring commitments, which he will dovetail alongside his new institutional responsibilities.

Previous to his affiliation with UIC Barcelona, he was a professor at the Faculty of Communication of the University of Navarra (1985-1993), where he was also appointed assistant director of the Department of Culture and Audiovisual Communication (1990-1993).

In 1993, he was awarded a position as interim senior lecturer at the University of Malaga following a merit-based competition, and in 2000 he won the position of lecturer after taking the national exams (oposiciones), which he held for the next fifteen years (2000-2015). During those three five-year periods he was elected to the positions of faculty secretary, secretary of the Department of Audiovisual Communication and secretary of the Audiovisual Communication and Advertising Teaching Office.

In 2015, he was appointed dean of the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Communication Sciences, a position he held until today. In November 2015, he obtained the accreditation as a full university professor by ANECA and in May 2016, he defended his position as full professor at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya.

Alfonso Méndiz has undertaken research stays at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel, 2009), the University of La Sabana (Colombia, 2010), and the Catholic University of Milan (Italy, 2011).

He has published seventeen books (eleven of which he is the sole author, and six to which he contributed to as an editor or co-author). These include publications on film and advertising: El arte de la adaptación (1993), Modelos de consumidor en la publicidad (1996), La industria audiovisual y publicitaria en Andalucía (1999), Publicidad, Comunicación y Marketing en Internet (2002), Publicidad, Educación y Nuevas Tecnologías (2003), Cómo se hicieron las grandes películas (2005, 2nd ed.), Falsedad y Comunicación (2007), Nuevas formas publicitarias (2007, 3rd ed.), Jesucristo en el cine (2009), Los valores en la publicidad (2010), Historia de la Publicidad (2013) and Teoría de la Publicidad (2013).

In addition, he has published more than 120 scientific articles, book chapters and monographs and accumulated 1,444 citations. He is the fourth most cited researcher in the field of audiovisual communication, according to Google Scholar. He is also an R+D+i project reviewer for various agencies and has supervised 25 doctoral theses.

The official inauguration of the new rector Alfonso Méndiz will take place on 1 October as part of the inaugural ceremony for the academic year 2021-2022.