Department introduction

Area of Physiology

The degree in Natural Sciences, which included both geological and biological areas and offered courses such as Animal Physiology, started at the University of Barcelona in 1900. This university, together with the University of Madrid, were the two only universities which offered Natural Sciences in Spain.  This situation continued until 1964 when similar schools were established in other Spanish universities.

After the Civil War, from 1941 to 1944, one of the first documented researchers who was responsible for teaching Physiology was Dr Santiago Alcobé Noguer, professor of Anthropology. He was later to become the president of the University of Barcelona. In 1944 a chair in Organography and Animal Physiology was created and awarded to Professor Dr. Francisco Ponz Piedrafita, who had the chair until 1966.

A decree published on 7 July 1944, derived from the Ley de Ordenación de la Universidad Española, established a restructuring of the teaching plans and school chairs.  In Schools of Science, undergraduate degrees were lengthened from four to five years. Among the new chairs in the Natural Sciences Section, the Chair in Animal Physiology was created, thus losing its connection to Organography, which now is attached to the Zoology Section.

A decree published in August, 1953 was an important landmark for Biological Sciences: the degree in Natural Sciences disappeared and was replaced by separate degrees in Biological Sciences and Geological Sciences. There was a common first year for all the sections in the Faculty of Sciences, which also was a selective year.

After Professor Ponz obtained the Animal Physiology chair, and not having laboratories or offices, he was assigned part of a building which had been used as a secondary school on the premises of the University of Barcelona’s historical complex (located in the corner of Calle Aribau and Gran Vía). On the ground floor there was a  General Biology laboratory, which was then also used for Animal Physiology laboratory practice. In the middle of the first floor the Animal Physiology chair was established, with its research laboratories. This building was shared with Professor Luis Solé’s Department of Geology, which had a laboratory and a General Geology and Physical Geography classroom, as well as the janitor’s dwelling, Mr. Gregorio Domínguez, on the second floor. This location was maintained, with small additions to the first and second floor until 1982, when the Faculty was moved to a new building on the Pedralbes campus.

Between 1944 and the 1950s, several lecturers from different biological specializations, who were led by Prof. Ponz, were formed in the Animal Physiology department. These lecturers were later responsible for teaching other courses established in the 1953 teaching plan, which lead to the creation of different departments. During that time, professor Ramón Parés Farràs developed his dissertation in the Animal Physiology Department. He later was in charge of teaching Microbiology and in time, it lead to the creation of a new department. Professor Ramón Margalef i López also used the laboratories and facilities to prepare his dissertation and he later obtained the first chair in Ecology in Spain. This also led to the creation of a department. General Physiology, which was later called Biochemistry, was attached the the Animal Physiology chair and was held by Prof  Ponz up to his transfer to Pamplona. Afterwards, there were several professors who were temporarily in charge of the subject (Caballero, Rosell, Alemany, Suau...) until Prof Emilio Herrera Castillón obtained the chair. He gave the chair a great impulse, and a few years later the Biochemistry faculty formed an independent department.

 In 1966, after Prof. Fransico Ponz's departure to be the president of the University of Navarra, Prof. José Planas Mestres, who was Prof. Ponz's disciple and professor of that subject by the University of Valladolid, obtained the chair in Animal Physiology.  During his chair, which started in 1966 and ended when he passed away in 1995, the department experienced an enormous growth, both in terms of faculty size as in lines of research and subjects. It is then when new subjects were introduced such as Environmental Animal Physiology, Endocrinology, Human Physiology, Applied Animal Physiology, and Immunology, which currently form part of the different programs of studies in the degrees that are offered by the School of Biology.

Area of Immunology

Immunology was always included, although at first in a somewhat anecdotal way, in the Animal Physiology program. In 1984, upon the department's request, it became an elective subject, taught by  Prof. Ramon Rama Bretón. In 1986, the Immunology Knowledge Area was created, and the necessary faculty were recruited. In 1992 Dr. Antonio Celada Cotarelo became the first full professor of the University responsible for teaching Immunology in our department, which originated the current lines of research in this area.