Departures of note

Carles Solà i Ferrando was born in Xàtiva, Valencia, and trained as a chemist at the University of Valencia, where he earned his doctorate before building his academic career at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He helped establish a chemical engineering department there and pioneer undergraduate studies in biotechnology, one of the first such programmes in Spain. As a professor and later rector of the UAB from 1994 to 2002, he oversaw the creation of new schools and research institutes, the inauguration of the Cívica Square and the UAB's emblematic four columns, and the university's adaptation to the European Higher Education Area, while his mandate was also marked by budget tensions and the contentious University Organic Law.

A reference figure of left-wing Valencianism and a supporter of independence, Solà entered politics as Minister of Universities, Research and the Information Society in the Catalan government of Pasqual Maragall (2003–2006). He was one of the driving forces behind the Vives Network of Universities and the Association of Catalan Public Universities (ACUP), and closed the Barcelona list of Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència in 2010. He served as president of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (1996–1998) and held leadership roles in several international academic bodies. The UAB confirmed his death at the age of 80, and the university's rector remembered him as the most important rector in the institution's history.