Name Jordi Cami | ||
Jordi Camí (Terrassa, 1952) MD, PhD, is Professor of Pharmacology (specialist in Clinical Pharmacology) at Pompeu Fabra University, General Director of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), and Director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation.
His main research activity has been focused, during more than 20 years, in the Neurosciences field, particularly in the Clinical pharmacology of Drug abuse. He specialized in the evaluation of the effects of the simultaneous consumption of different drugs (alcohol, cocaine, THC) in humans, and the clinical and pharmacological effects of MDMA (ecstasy). One of the first Detoxification Units for heroin addicts in Spain was created in 1981 at the Hospital del Mar of Barcelona under his responsibility. In 1988 he was the founder member and first President of the Spanish Society of Drug Addictions (SET).
Between 1985 and 2005, he was the Director of the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona (IMIM), a university institute that he promoted and reorganized until it reached one of the first positions in biomedical research production in the health sector. During this time, he was the promoter of the official accreditation of the Antidoping Laboratory of IMIM by the International Olympic Committee for antidoping control (official antidoping laboratory in the Olympic Games of Barcelona 1992).
His academic activity has been developed between the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), holding different positions in both universities (Vice-chancellor’s delegate, Dean and Chairman of Department). Between 1997 and 2002 he was responsible for the conception and development of the Health and Life Sciences studies at Pompeu Fabra University, studies which include a degree in Human Biology and a Biomedicine PhD given in English. Later, he promoted the creation of new research centres as the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) or the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB), and especially he led to the creation of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), a centre that he directs since 2005. The PRBB includes, at present, seven research public centres that assemble more than 1,400 people (40% of scientific staff are foreigners) and in which biomedical research takes place from a molecular to a populational perspective, all in an exceptional environment nearby Hospital del Mar of Barcelona.
Camí is author of more than 150 publications and several monographs related to drug abuse, bibliometrics and science policy, he has directed 15 PhD theses. He is also the author of the “Code of Good Scientific Practices” adopted since 2001 by all scientists belonging to the PRBB centres. He was the editor and founder of the Quark magazine (Science, Medicine, Communication and Culture) (1995-2005). Among the different prizes received, two stand out: the honourable mention of the Research Award Reina Sofía in 1990 and the Narcís Monturiol medal to scientific and technological merits, awarded by the Catalan Government, in 2000. Among others institutions he served as member of the Health Advisory Council of the Spanish Ministry of Health and member of its Executive Committee from 2005 to 2012, as well as member of the Spanish Bioethics Committee from 2007 to 2012.
Currently he is driven by promoting scientific projects to better understand cognition, memory and its related diseases. He is interested in the intersection between science and politics, as well as between science and ethics. He like the motto of Dau al Set like creativity, surrealism and the world of magicians and illusionists.