Pilar Catalán, BIFI researcher, appointed Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences

Pilar Catalán, researcher at the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) and professor at the Polytechnic School of Huesca at the University of Zaragoza, has been appointed Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain (RAC), assigned to the Natural Sciences section. The appointment, which is for life, was approved at the Academy’s plenary session on 28 November and was supported by the scientists Ana Crespo, Miguel Delibes and Pedro Jordano.

Catalán specialises in systematic and evolutionary botany. Using phylogenomic and comparative and functional genomic approaches, she studies the evolutionary and molecular systematics of grasses, in particular the genus Brachypodium and the pasture and forage grasses of the subtribe Loliinae. She researches the coevolution of grasses and endophytic fungi of the genus Epichloë and the adaptive responses of both to stress. Furthermore, she has worked on population genetics and the conservation of endemic and threatened plants.

She was Deputy Coordinator of the ANEP in the area of Plant Biology, Animal Biology and Ecology (2006-2010), Visiting Professor of Botany at Tomsk State University in Russia (2014-2021), and has been an Honorary Member of the Botanical Society of America since 2017, a lifetime position. She has also been invited to give the inaugural lecture of the 2026/27 academic year at the University of Zaragoza, entitled “Systematic and evolutionary botany: an integrative vision”.

Catalán has expressed her satisfaction at joining a scientific institution of “enormous prestige” and described her election as recognition of a long research career.