On Wednesday 16th February, the rector of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB, University of Barcelona), Joan Tugores, the minister for Universities Research and the Information Society, Carles Solà, and the director of the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB, Barcelona Science Park), Màrius Rubiralta, officially opened the Antoni Caparrós Auditorium, in remembrance of a man who was the driving force behind the PCB project, the first president of the Fundació Parc Científic de Barcelona and the rector of the UB between 1994 and 200; the year in which he died.

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The proposal to name this facility after Antoni Caparrós, approved in a meeting of the PCB’s Board of Governors on 30 June 2003, allows the PCB to pay tribute to a man who provided the support necessary to begin the first science park in Spain at the UB. The endorsement of this project showed the firm commitment of the UB to strengthening its role in the public sector, by returning to society the benefits of its scientific and technological expertise. Thus, the PCB initiative was launched in 1994 when Antoni Caparrós, in his capacity as rector of the UB, pledged his support to the development of a new system, offering a wide range of technological facilities, in which to converge public research and the private sector.

Antoni Caparrós was the first full professor of Psychology to be appointed rector of a Spanish university. Born in Zaragoza in 1938, he was a graduate in Philosophy and held a diploma in Psychology. He completed his post-graduate studies in the universities of Munich, Tubinga and Viena, and his doctoral thesis on the work of Erich Fromm was presented in 1974 and was supervised by the full professor Miquel Siguán. Antoni Capparós was a specialist in the history of psychology, in particular the German origins of experimental psychology, and in the history of psychoanalysis. A UB professor from 1974 and a full professor of psychology from 1985, Antoni Caparrós held the following posts: head of the Dept. of General Psychology, dean of the Faculty of Psychology, assistant to the vice-rector for academic Affairs in the first term of the rector Badia Margarit and vice-rector of teaching and staff development under the rector Bricall.