Professor of Crop Sciences (Plant Pathology) at the University of Girona, he earned his doctorate in Microbiology from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in 1982. He began working professionally at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in 1983. He later joined the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, where he formed a Plant Pathology group (1986). In 1992, he joined the University of Girona, where he is currently working. He has been a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Plant Pathology at Cornell University in the United States (1994).
His area of research and development is focused on Plant Pathology, especially in the field of epidemiology and the integrated control of fruit-tree diseases. He has directed 30 research projects resulting from winning competitive tenders financed by the Government of Catalonia, the Government of Spain and the European Union, and 35 R&D contracts with private enterprises in the field of crop protection and plant protection products. He has been coordinator of an ERA-NET PLANT-KBBE project on plants as biofactories producing antimicrobial peptides, and is currently responsible for innovative methods for fruit-tree control as part of another European project, FP7-KBBE-2013-7 DROPSA.
He has 5 patented inventions in the field of microbial biopesticides and antimicrobial peptides. He has published 100 scientific articles in the most relevant international journals in the area of Plant Microbiology and Pathology indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI), which have received 1,600 citations (Index H= 30), and with which he has also collaborated as an expert reviewer. He was section editor for International Microbiology and Phytopatologia Mediterranea. He has edited 3 international books and authored 25 book chapters on biopesticides and the control of plant diseases for such publishers as Mundi-Prensa, Oxford University Press., Elsevier, Inc., and CRC Press.
Creator and director of the Official Masters in Food Biotechnology at the University of Girona, he has directed 15 doctoral dissertations. He is the director of the Plant Health Innovation and Development Centre (CIDSAV) at the University of Girona, and belongs to the TECNIO Network, founded in 2001. Since 1993, he has been the coordinator of a Consolidated Research Group recognised by the CIRIT.
He has been invited to speak at numerous international congresses, including the International Congress of Plant Pathology (Turin, Beijing), and has participated on research evaluation committees and panels (ERC, Europe; CNEAI and ANEP, Spain; AQU, Catalonia; ACSUCyL, Castile and Leon; AGAE, Andalusia; CITA, Aragon), and as an advisor in the field of fruit-tree diseases (CTiFL-INRA, France; MAPA, Spain; DAAM, Government of Catalonia) and plant pathogenic bacteria (EFSA Plant Health Panel- WG2009).
He won the "Government of Catalonia’s Narcís Monturiol Medal 2012” in recognition of scientific and technological merit for the development of agricultural microbiology and plant pathology, especially in the field of epidemiology and integrated control of fruit-tree diseases. His is an Honorary Member of the Spanish Phytopathology Society, and was its President from 2004 to 2008.