The ICCUB member Jordi Torra is the new director of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), since last July. He is Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Barcelona, where he gained his doctorate in Physics in 1984. Doctor Torra is a member of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), one of the research centers that form the IEEC. He has been the principal researcher in several scientific projects and has published over a hundred papers. He currently leads the Spanish group taking part in the ESA’s Gaia mission.