The prestigious directory Who's Who in the World will include the profile of the professor of the URV Policarp Hortolà

The biologist Policarp Hortolà, researcher and professor of the Area of Prehistory of the University Rovira i Virgili, and also collaborator of the IPHES (Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution) (in the center of the image) has been selected to appear in the 24^th edition of the directory Who’s Who in the World, which publishes the prestigious North American publishing company Marquis, world leader in the in the field of the biographical directories of the people outstanding in the different areas of the society, and which will be published in November of this year, although it is about a volume corresponding to the year 2007.

Hortolà, which joined the URV as a researcher professor in February 2002, is specialized in the research on the morphology of the erythrocytes (red cells of the blood) in bloodstains, with a prehistoric bias. In this sense he has discovered and systematized the different morphologies of the erythrocytes in mammalian bloodstains, being the founder of the known science as haemotaphonomy.

In the study of human evolution, the identification of bloodstains, for example in a tool, can provide us information about the use of that instrument and about the environment in which the hominids of a specific period have developed, in the same way that is done when the lithic industry contains remains of leaves, fur, etc.

In the directory corresponding to 2007 -which will be available from November of this year- the biographical profile of Dr. Hortolà is included, a privilege that is reserved to those people that have proved exceptional successes in their fields of work and, in consequence, that have contributed significantly to the contemporary society.

One of the most recent publications of professor Hortolà is the book Understanding the science from inside (or at least to try it) (URV Publications), written with Eudald Carbonell, head of department of prehistory at this university, and director of the IPHES (Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution).

Brief currículum and biography

Born in Badalona on the 13^th of September 1958, Policarp Hortolà has a degree in Biological Sciences through the University of Barcelona, where afterwards he carried out the program of doctorate: Sedimentary record and paleoenvironmental evolution, finally obtaining the doctorate in 2001 in the URV, work by which he was distinguished a year later with the Extraordinary Prize of Doctorate of this University.

He has published a total of 30 articles, in national and international magazines (Catalonia, Spain, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, United States, Mexico). Besides the mentioned book he is the author the publication Dating fear racemization of amino acids (Editions of the University of Barcelona, 1998), and also he has collaborated in two more, Picamoixons. A strategic settlement of the last hunters-gatherers (History Museum of Tarragona-Laboratory of Archaeology of the University Rovira i Vrigili, 1992), and Hominids: the first occupations of the continents (Ariel, 2005).