The 2024-2025 course has begun with researcher Xavier Gil as the new director of the Bioengineering Institute of Technology (BIT) and the Department of Bioengineering, taking over in the positions of Román Pérez, who joins the University Board of Governors as vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer.

With a degree and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Barcelona, Xavier Gil is an internationally recognised researcher in the field of biomaterials and their application in dentistry. He is part of the latest edition of Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Scientists, ranking as one of the most influential researchers thanks to his research career and scientific production in the field of bioengineering. Moreover, Gil is responsible for the Spanish National Network of Peri-implantitis and Implantoplasty, leading a line of research based on the optimisation of dental implant surfaces to improve osseointegration and bacterial infection.

The former rector of UIC Barcelona takes on the challenge of continuing to drive and promote research in bioengineering, as well as fostering synergies between the research carried out at BIT and that of other areas in the field of health and dentistry at the Sant Cugat Campus.

Xavier Gil will combine his role as head of the BIT with the different research projects he is working on. Among these, the competitive project ‘Bactericidal nanotextures in titanium and Ti-6Al-4V prostheses for spinal surgery’ obtained last year in the Product category and which has a fund of €1,150,000. With this project, the team of researchers led by Xavier Gil has developed a bactericidal surface with titanium oxide using nanotechnology to prevent infections in dental implants and prostheses.

Throughout his research career, Xavier Gil has headed more than 35 European and 79 national research projects in the area biomaterials and tissue engineering. He has written ten books and over 390 international publications with an h-index of 66, holds more than 22 patents, and has participated in more than 250 oral communications at congresses.