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## The Universitat Jaume I named honorary doctorates Sebastià Serrano and Fernando Checa

03/06/2015 |
SCP

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[![







![Honoris causa Sebastià Serrano y Fernando Checa](http://www.svideo.uji.es/svideo_flash/jpeg/Acte_Honoris_Causa_Serrano_Checa.jpg "No video playback capabilities, please download the video below")
](http://www.svideo.uji.es/svideo_flash/jpeg/Acte_Honoris_Causa_Serrano_Checa.jpg)](http://www.svideo.uji.es/svideo_flash/minut/Acte_Honoris_Causa_Serrano_Checa_1min.ogv)

‪The Universitat Jaume I of Castellón has invested honorary doctorates the philologist Sebastià Serrano and the historian Fernando Checa, in a ceremony that took place in the Auditorium of the Universitat Jaume I.

Vicent Salvador, professor of Catalan Philology at the UJI, has been commissioned to read the laudatio of Sebastià Serrano, philologist known for his promotion of linguistic knowledge in several lines from mathematical linguistics to literary discourse linguistics, semiotics or research on human communication. In addition to his many academic achievements, professor Serrano's relationship with the Universitat Jaume I is longstanding since he has participated as a lecturer, speaker and teacher of summer courses and in other university activities. Salvador has highlighted two features of the intellectual journey of professor Serrano “his obsession to establish fruitful and accessible bridges between both cultures: science and humanities; and his cross curiosity that has led him to follow a long journey through various subjects and epistemological areas. "

‪The professor of the UJI has defined Sebastià Serrano as a "versatile and seductive master who has been able to call the attention of a media public through his books, lectures and media appearances." ‪Alongside he has highlighted his strictly academic expertise, expressed for example in the fifty doctoral thesis he has supervised, and others which he has managed to inspire or judge from the committee.  ‪Finally, he has stressed that "his mark remains today in other teachers and researchers, some of whom belong to the University scope that now honours him such as Lluís Meseguer, Josep R. Guzman, Adolf Piquer, Laia Climent and myself."

In his speech, the honorary doctorate Sebastià Serrano has paid tribute to the scriveners who introduced writing, "the first major extraordinary innovation that our species Homo sapiens lived and from which we still live." ‪Thus, he explained that the first scriveners sought that a linguistic activity could be made with the eyes and, therefore, they were as "neurologists before the letter" since they solved the major problem of interpretation that is to involve and make an alliance of two major systems: visual and auditory.

‪In this regard, he noted that the visual system of the brain had been well developed over millions of years and, for this reason, it was prepared for an idea such as that of the scriveners could succeed.  ‪Thus, he explained that "writing is like a set of traces and brains are ready and wired for seeing certain shapes found in nature, so that what the ancestors scriveners proposed was to introduce compatible symbols with the brain function."

**Honorary doctorate Fernando Checa**

‪For his part, Victor Mínguez, professor of Art History, has made the laudatio of Fernando Checa, the most active and important art historian and in the Spanish universities and who holds greater international prestige. Mínguez explained "researches by Fernando Checa made a huge contribution to the History and Art History. His career is recognised by numerous institutional acknowledgments such as the National Prize of History which he won in 1993, and the Medal of the Arts of the Republic of Austria".  ‪The UJI professor has stressed the extensive and valuable scientific productivity of Checa and his important work in front of the management of the Spanish and European heritage (he was director of the Prado Museum from 1996 to 2001).  ‪He has also thanked the professor his collaboration with the group "Iconography and Art History" (IHA) at the Jaume I and his commitment to the new Doctoral School.  ‪To conclude Victor Mínguez wanted to mention two qualities of professor Fernando Checa that transcend his scientific expertise, "his inexhaustible and contagious enthusiasm for his work, and his active and constant commitment to the Spanish public university."

In his speech, Fernando Checa has portrayed the great painter Tiziano Vecellio by the story of an informal meeting with some friends linked to the world of literature.  ‪Checa has highlighted the pleasure of the painter by these meetings and the way in which many issues discussed there were reflected later in his painting, as wealth and sensuality of the characters, the expressiveness of the faces, the distribution of space or his love towards colours.  ‪Finally, the professor congratulated the group Iconography and Art (IHA) of the public university of Castellón for being "one of the best groups in Europe."

**The rector claims and increased investment in research**

‪To end the ceremony, the rector of the UJI has described Checa and Serrano as two fantastic university professors, both examples of the fundamental relationship between research and teaching.  ‪"In their work coincide their interest towards a type of information particularly important today, visual information.  ‪We live in the era of image, of the audiovisual, digital, holographic, and even virtual image.  ‪This era of the image is therefore an era of signs and symbols and nonverbal communication, three areas in which we have learned a lot from the work of professor Serrano".

Climent has used his speech to vindicate the importance of increasing investment in education and research, "especially the one carried out in public universities, since by now it represents over 60% of the research carried out in the whole country.  ‪Research is declining alarmingly in recent years and it is happening because of the austerity suicide, which has drastically reduced resources for R&D in our country.  ‪With an annual investment of 1.24% of GDP we are far from the 2.03% of the EU-27, 2.77% of the USA or 3% which called the Lisbon agenda." According to the rector "it is unfortunate that cuts in state funding for research head us for a regression in research, equivalent to a decade in time. Against this regression the economical crisis cannot be an excuse, since another country that has also suffered it, and perhaps with more intensity, such as Portugal, gives us lessons allocating 1.36% of GDP to research, 0.12 % more than us." ‪In this sense, Climent has also given the example of Jaume I, which is applying for five years very clear policies of expenses control, energy efficiency and savings, "while preserving investment in research."

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