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Puigcerver Zanón, Manuel

València 1922 - Barcelona 2020. Meteorologist, Physicist
Degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Valencia, PhD in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona, ​​Master of Science in Meteorology from the University of Chicago, and Professor of Air Physics at the University of Barcelona.
In 1960 he was part of an Antarctic expedition as a meteorologist and chief scientist at the Chilean Antarctic base, Presidente González Videla (1960 to 1961), and was also head of research at the Department of Meteorology of the Institute of Geophysics of the University of Chile (1962-63). He was one of the first scientists to go to Antarctica and collect data on the ozone layer.
He received his doctorate in 1962, with a thesis entitled “Contribution to the study of the spectrum of the air” directed by another illustrious meteorologist, Dr. Josep Maria Vidal, who is also the one who answered the speech at the entrance to the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona in 1972. He was professor of Air Physics at the University of Barcelona (1967 to 1987), and previously, as a meteorologist, he held various positions in the National Meteorological Service (currently the State Meteorological Agency).
Dr. Puigcerver had the title of Master of Science in Meteorology from the University of Chicago, Illinois (1958), and also the Foreign Member of the Royal Meteorological Society of Great Britain (1980), transferred to the category of Fellow in 1985.

Trajectory
Professor of meteorology, Dr. Puigcerver can be considered a benchmark in Catalan meteorology, as was Dr. Eduard Fontseré Riba (also a professor at the University of Barcelona and founder of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia).

The boost that Dr. Puigcerver provided to research in meteorology, which is so traditional in Catalonia, was evident by the large number of scientific publications and doctoral theses that he directed on the aforementioned topics. He was the author of ninety-five scientific and popular publications, and director of twenty-one doctoral theses.
Dr. Puigcerver left us on January 2, 2020, in Barcelona at the age of ninety-seven.

Acknowledgments

This biographical note has been compiled, among other sources, from the obituary of his department colleague, Jerónimo Lorente Castelló, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Barcelona.



Image gallery

Dr. Puigcerver Zanón with Dr. Vidal Llenas. World Meteorological Day 2013. Dr. Puigcerver with Dr. Vidal Llenas and Dr. Barrachina.