MedECC is proud to share the news that Dr. María Carmen Llasat, Professor at the Universitat de Barcelona and member of MedECC, has received the “Creus de Sant Jordi” (‘Crosses of Saint George’) on Monday, July 11, from the hands of the President of the Catalan government.
Professor of Atmospheric Physics in the Department of Applied Physics at the University of Barcelona and director of the GAMA team, she was one of the pioneering women promoting interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies. She has been awarded for her contribution to the field of physics and the study, research and awareness of climate change and natural hazards.
She plays a valuable part in the functioning and success of MedECC. She is a member of the Steering Committee, she has participated very actively in The First Mediterranean Assessment Report MAR1 and nowadays is co-coordinator of the Special Report on Coastal Risks in the Mediterranean to be published in 2023.
She is one of the principal investigator of the University of Barcelona team in the I-Change project, an Innovation Action project which has started in November 2021 and is running for 3,5 years. The aim is to show that behavioural change of single citizens is possible through citizen science initiatives which are using sensors and that this has an impact of their environmental footprint.
The “Creu de Sant Jordi” is an annual distinction awarded by the Government of Catalonia to those people and social entities that “due to their merits, have provided outstanding services to Catalonia in the defense of its identity, especially in the civic and cultural field”. It is one of the highest distinctions awarded by the Government of Catalonia. It is based on the cross of Saint George, the patron saint of Catalonia.
Dr. María Carmen Llasat was scientific director of the Catalan Agrometeorological Network, since its installation at the end of the 1980s, and she led the agroclimatic characterization of Catalonia and the project for the installation of the automatic meteorological stations of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia after its reopening in the mid-1990s. Since then, she has collaborated with the Forest Fire Prevention Service, leading projects to improve the prediction of fire danger in the short and medium term and has developed a great activity with Civil Protection to improve the awareness and empowerment of the population in the face of natural risks.
She was president of the Interdisciplinary Working Group of Natural Hazards of the European Geophysical Society; founder and editor-in-chief of Natural Hazards and Earth System Science journal; coordinator of the Heavy Rainfalls group of the AMHY/FRIEND program of UNESCO and of the groups on socioeconomic impacts of the international programs and HyMeX (HYdrological cycle in the Mediterranean EXperiment) and the MEDEX (The Mediterranean Experiment) supported by the World Meteorological Organisation WMO.
She has been member of the Advisory Council of Sustainable Development of Catalonia, being author of the first report in Spain on the Sustainable Development Goals and the second and third reports of Climate Change in Catalonia, between others. She is member a member of the Catalan group of the Spanish Chapter of the Club of Rome.