Francesc Xavier Grau Vidal, rector of the University Rovira i Virgili since 2006, is Professor in Fluid Mechanics at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He holds a PhD (1986) and a degree (1981) in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Barcelona. His research interests focus on the physics, modelling and control of heat, mass and momentum transfer in industrial flows and in the environment, with a long lasting experience of applied research and relations with industry. He has also been researcher at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics of the INP-Toulouse (France), at the NASA-Ames Center for Turbulence Research (USA) and at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Stanford University (USA). Grau has also taken active part in setting up programmes for educating and informing the general public on scientific issues, and been involved in university-society and industry-society relations.