Current position:
- Professor of Condensed Matter Physics, UPV/EHU (1988-present)
- President of the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC ) (1999-present)
- President of the Board of Partners of the BERC-MPC (Material Physics Center) (2009-present)
- Honorary President of Jakiunde. Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters (2012-present)
Academic degrees:
- BSc in Physical Sciences. University of Navarra (1972)
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). University of Cambridge (UK) (1976)
- PhD in Physical Sciences. Autonomous University of Barcelona (1977)
- Doctor of Science, (ScD). University of Cambridge (1998)
- Honorary Doctorates from Valladolid University (2000), Public University of Navarra-UPNA (2008), Complutense University of Madrid (2013), Aalto University in Finland (2016), Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (2017) and the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) (2024)
Previous positions:
- Professor of Solid State Physics. University of Barcelona (1978-1980)
- Education Minister of the Basque Government (1980-1983)
- Education and Culture Minister and Spokesperson of the Basque Government (1983-1984)
- Visiting Professor at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (UK) (1984-1986)
- Member of the Scientific Council. BBV Foundation (1990-2009)
- Member of the Trilateral Commission (1996-2015)
- Director of the CSIC-UPV/EHU Joint Centre (1999-2001)
- Board Member of IDOM (2000-2009)
- Member of the Governing Board of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) (2001-2007)
- President of CIC Nanogune (2006-2019)
- President of Jakiunde. Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters (2007-2012)
- Vice-President of Innobasque (2008-2012)
- Board Member of IkerChem (2011-2014)
- Vice-President of the Euskampus Foundation (2011- 2019)
- President of the Social Council of the City of San Sebastian (2015-2019)
Professional activities:
- Member of the International Advisory Board of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Oviedo (2010-present)
- Board Member of Graphenea SA (2011-present)
- Member of the Board of Trustees of the EDP Foundation (2016-present)
Honours and awards:
- Bachelor’s Degree Extraordinary Award, National Award for Excellence in Academic Performance and Extraordinary Doctorate Award
- Overseas Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, England (1985)
- Fellow of the American Physical Society (FAPS) (1990)
- Xabier María de Munibe Award (1996)
- «Dupont» Award (1996)
- Euskadi Research Award (1996)
- Prince of Viana Culture Award (1997)
- Gold Medal from the University of the Basque Country (1998)
- Favourite Son of the Town of Isaba (1998)
- Grand Cross of Alfonso X, the Wise (1998)
- Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research (1998)
- Max Planck Physics Prize (1998)
- Universal Basque of the Year (1998)
- Gold Medal of the City of San Sebastian-Donostia (2000)
- Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) (2001)
- Iberdrola Science and Technology Award (2002)
- Gold Medal of the Spanish Royal Physics Society (2003)
- Manuel de Irujo Award. Irujo Etxea Foundation. Estella. (2003)
- Blas Cabrera National Award for Physical Materials and Earth Sciences (2005)
- Gold Medal of Gipuzkoa (2006)
- Foreign Member of the Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (2009)
- Manel Xifra i Boada Award for Scientific and Technical Communication (2010)
- Sabino Arana Award (2011)
- Member of the Jury of the Prince of Asturias Awards for Technical and Scientific Research (2006-2012)
- President of the Jury of the Prince of Asturias Awards for Technical and Scientific Research (2006-present)
- Liberpress Camins Award (2012)
- Honorary Founding Ambassador of San Sebastian (2012-present)
- Full member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences (RAC) (2014)
- Gold Medal of Navarra (2016)
- Honorary Member of the EPS (European Physical Society) (2018)
- First honorary member of the Basque Federation of Junior Enterprises (2019)
- Member of the Lombard Institute, Academy of Science and Letters of Milan (2020)
- 5th DonosiaINN Business Innovation Award (2020) to the DIPC
- NIE Award (Nafarroako Ikastolen Elkartea) (2023)
- Formal lecture at the Spring Meeting of the German Physical Society (DPG) in Berlin (2024)
- “Gallico de Oro 2024” award presented by the Napardi Gastronomic Society of Pamplona (2024)
Lectures, seminars and publications:
- He has delivered plenary and guest lectures at over a hundred international conferences.
- He has given seminars at numerous international centres, such as Cambridge, Berkeley, Berlin, Tokyo, Vienna, London, Osnabrück, Kyoto, Zürich, Helsinki, Bariloche, Munich, Bell Labs New Jersey, IBM Yorktown Hight, Buenos Aires, Oak Ridge, Brookhaven, Columbia, Florida, New York, Mexico, Coimbra, Stuttgart, Kiel, Erlangen, Rutgers, Bielefeld, Lausanne, Tsukuba, Strasbourg, Magdeburg, among others.
- He has supervised 27 doctoral theses and published over 450 papers in books and journals (Physical Review B (170) and Physical Review A (13), Physical Review Letters (48), Nature or Science (9), etc.).
- His research interests are focused on many-body physics, surface physics, electron microscopy, attophysics, and the interaction of charged particles and radiation with matter.
