Prof. Trinitat Pradell is a physicist with a PhD in Physics from the University of Barcelona. She worked at the IAM-JRC (Petten, Holland, 1989) and later joined the UPC, where she is currently a member of the Physics Department. She enjoyed a sabbatical at the University of Oxford (2003). She is developing her research in the field of materials science, with special attention to materials of interest in the field of Cultural Heritage and its conservation. She studies the production technology and state of conservation of historical-art materials, contributing data to historical research. She is a member of the Science and Technology Section of the Institute of Catalan Studies. She has been awarded the 2023 Narcis Monturiol Prize by the Generalitat de Catalunya. She has published around 130 articles in international journals and is among the 2% of the most cited scientists in her field in the Clarivate 2021 and 2022 lists.
Her research has several objectives. On the one hand, to analyze the materials in order to obtain information of interest to Historians and Restorers; on the other hand, to study the production technology in order to identify changes in materials and processes over time (lost technologies) as well as technological discoveries (new materials, new instruments). Revealing the technology by analyzing the objects and reproducing the procedures used, which allows them to be validated (reverse engineering).