Gonzalo García, Ramón

Ramón Gonzalo García (Logroño, La Rioja, 1972) graduated from the Public University of Navarre (1995) with honours, receiving a degree in Telecommunications Engineering. He received his PhD from the same university (2000) with top grades and a European Mention in his Doctoral Diploma. He began as an assistant professor at the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) in 1995 and was promoted to associate professor in 2003. He finally received senior professorship in the Signal and Communications Theory Department in 2010. As a researcher, he is affiliated with the UPNA Institute of Smart Cities (ISC).

Amongst his most noteworthy research projects are the designs for antennas for the Hispasat, Astra, and Amazonas satellites, as well as the development of Terahertz (THz) technology for designing new imaging devices for airports, medical use, and for different types of sensors. He has been a Spanish representative for the Ministry of Defence on different SET (Sensors & Electronics Technology) panels dealing with research and technology, as well as taking part in the Management Committee of the Virtual Institute of Metamaterials of Europe.

He is the director and person in charge of 24 research projects with public entities financed by the Government of Navarre, MINECO (Ministry of Economy), Ministry of Industry, European Space Agency, Sixth and Seventh Framework Programme, and Horizon 2020. Additionally, Ramón Gonzalo has worked on another 28 research projects and more than 25 R&D contracts with companies and governmental administrations (of which, he was in charge of thirteen). He is also the co-author of five patents (two of which have international scope). He has undertaken research stays with the European Space Agency (Holland), the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (England), and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Germany). Likewise, he was a visiting researcher in the STAR TIGER Programme, organised by the European Space Agency and undertaken at RAL (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) in England. He has also participated as a guest researcher in the Silicon Microfabrication Programme at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Author of book chapters, publications, and conferences, Gonzalo García is likewise a project and research programme evaluator (Era PerMEd, ANEP, UEFISCDI, etc.) as well as an article reviewer for seventeen scientific journals, amongst which “Nature Photonics” is noteworthy. He has directed nine doctoral theses (five with International or European Mention) and more than forty final degree projects.

Throughout his professional career, Ramón Gonzalo has received the Public University of Navarre's Research Prize in the Exact Sciences, Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Technical Sciences Area for the whole of his personal journey (2013); the European Space Agency's Award for his contribution to developing a new antenna device (1999); the Nokia Award for the Best Doctoral Thesis on Mobile Internet and Third Generation Mobile Solutions, awarded by the Official Association of Telecommunications Engineers (2001); four prizes for best paper at international congresses and conferences; the 2010 Engineer of the Year Award from the Association of Telecommunications Engineers of La Rioja; and the 2010 Crea EIBT Prize for the Best Technology-based Business Project.

Likewise, he organised the 30th National Symposium of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI 2015), the International 2008 Metamaterials Congress, and the 12th European School on Metamaterials: Antennas Based on Metamaterials Technology and their Applications, all of which were held in Pamplona; the 27th ESA Antenna Technology Workshop on Innovative Periodic Antennas: Electromagnetic Bandgap, Left-handed Materials and Frequency Selective Surfaces, which took place in Santiago de Compostela, and the Workshop in Metamaterials for Optics and Microwave Applications, held in San Sebastián. He has sat on a number of technical committees and organised several special sessions at international conferences on high-frequency, microwave, and antenna technology.

His experience in the field of academic management includes serving as Deputy Head of the UPNA’s School of Industrial and ICT Engineering (ETSIIT), director of the Bachelor's Degree in Telecommunications Engineering (2006 to 2008), and Head of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department (2008 to 2010). He also took part in the work groups which designed the Bachelor’s Degree in Telecommunications Engineering and the Master’s Degree in Telecommunications Engineering, for which he was in charge of quality. He sat on the Board of the School of Industrial Engineering and Telecommunications from 2006 to 2012, has been a member of the UPNA Senate since 2008, and was a member of the Research Committee from 2010 to 2015. He was Vice-Chancellor of Research from 2015 to 2019 and was appointed Chancellor in May of 2019.