On Monday, 3 June 2013, Jordi Pujol i Soley, the former president of the Catalan government, presented the memoirs of the first UIC Rector, Jordi Cervós i Navarro. UIC Rector Dr. Pere Alavedra and Lluís Pagès, the book's publisher, were also present. Memòries. Berlín i Barcelona, Anada i Retorn (Memoirs: Between Berlin and Barcelona), published by Pagès Editors, is a 450-page review of the life of Jordi Cervós i Navarro, who was born in 1930, from his time as a shepherd boy in Pallars Sobirà County until he became the founding rector of the UIC.
A classmate of Jordi Pujol in the Faculty of Medicine at the Universitat de Barcelona, Dr. Cervós was moved as he listened to the former president tell anecdotes from their youth that appear in the book. Pujol, who described the author as an "extraordinary person", highlighted Dr. Cervós' “spirit”, “audacity” and “strong character”.
After studying medicine, in 1952 Cervós moved to Germany, where he lived for over 40 years. His memoirs include personal anecdotes from that time, during which he established his career in research. After giving up psychiatry for neuropathology, he specialized in the study of brain diseases. His prolific research career took off with his discovery of the existence of nerves in the arterioles.
During that period, he lived through the division of Germany and then the fall of the Berlin Wall. He took over as Vice President of Freie Universität Berlin and Head of its Neuropathology Institute. He was also the President of the German Society of Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy.
The memoirs reveal that one of the high points of his life was when he met Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei who was later canonized, and learned about the priest’s personal vocation in the prelature. The last part of the book describes his return to Barcelona in 1997 and the new phase of his life as the Rector of the UIC (1997-2001).
During the presentation, Lluís Pagès expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to publish the book. "It is a great contribution to our Catalan bibliography", he added. The moving ceremony was attended by the three rectors who have served at the UIC during its 15-year history, namely, Dr. Josep Argemí, who took over after Dr. Cervós, and the current rector.
Dr. Cervós holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Hannover (Germany), Tokushima (Japan), Saransk (Russia), Thessaloniki (Greece), Zaragoza (Spain), Barcelona (Spain) and the Complutense de Madrid (Spain). He has also received the Cross of Civil Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany, the Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise and the Creu de Sant Jordi (2002).
