Dr Josep Maria Nadal, the Professor of the Catalan Language, and the UdG’s first Rector, a post he held from 1992 to 2002, has received the Saint George’s Cross for his ongoing commitment to the Catalan language and Catalan culture as expressed through his teaching, research and having set the foundations for decentralising teaching and research in Catalonia. He has excelled as a master in every field he has cultivated, which he is recognised for by an entire generation of philologists and historians of the Catalan language. He has been one of the driving forces behind the University of Girona, being its first rector, and a promoter of several benchmark study centres including the Languages of Europe and the Mediterranean Observatory (ODELLEUM) and debate forms.