The Universitat Politècnica de València ends the academic year highlighting research talent and commitment to sustainability.
The 2024/2025 academic year at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) is coming to an end. A year marked by great academic and institutional milestones, but also by a tragedy, the DANA, which demonstrated the commitment of the university community with the people affected.
The Nexus assembly hall hosted, in an extraordinary way, the institutional closing ceremony of the 2024/2025 academic year. As explained by the rector, José E. Capilla, in his speech, the rector’s building is undergoing major energy improvement and photovoltaic installation works whose execution has been delayed by the DANA tragedy, which affected some of the companies executing works at the university. Works that are a commitment to sustainability have made the UPV the first public university to obtain the seal of the Ministry of Ecological Transformation “Calculo, Reduzco, Compenso”, and the UPV has the lowest carbon footprint per person.
Baroque as protagonist
The emeritus professor and professor Pilar Roig has been in charge of delivering the closing lecture entitled “The beauty of the Valencian Baroque and its Conservation”, in which she has reviewed the most relevant actions she has directed in the Royal Basilica of the Virgen de los Desamparados in Valencia, the Church of San Pedro Mártir and San Nicolás de Bari and the Royal Parish of Santos Juanes de València. The three with a common denominator: the painter Antonio Palomino.
Roig also recalled the collaboration with the restorer of the Sistine Chapel, Gianluigi Colalucci, Ph. honoris causa by the UPV in 1995.
Investitures and awards
One of the central moments of the event was the investiture of new doctors, an exciting moment, the result of years of research effort. In addition, the extraordinary prizes for Doctoral Thesis were awarded, as well as the awarding of the Groundwater prize to the Hydrogeology Group of the UPV.
Strong and committed university
Esther Gómez, regional secretary for Universities of the Generalitat Valenciana, referred to the need for Valencian universities to be “strong universities, with culture, free science and research” for real progress, an innovative economy and a cohesive society.
Capilla emphasized the behavior of the university community during the DANA, which showed “enormous solidarity and generosity”, demonstrating, together with the university staff, the UPV’s commitment to social responsibility.
He also highlighted the consolidation of teaching and research excellence, with a historic record in public job offers, advances in internationalization and leadership in research, and plans to expand and improve infrastructure, including the future “UPV Caramelos” headquarters in the center of Valencia.
With a new institutional stage opened after the approval of new statutes and governing bodies, the rector insisted on the fundamental role of universities as spaces for critical thinking, peace and social justice, in the face of a world marked by uncertainty and conflict.
With the responsibility to train citizens committed to peace, the course at the Universitat Politècnica de València was closed.