Josep Pons Rosell

Who is Josep Pons Rosell?

Josep Pons Rosell is an anthropologist and professor at the Anthropology Department of the Biology Faculty of the University of Barcelona from 1973 to his retirement. In 1991 he was made academic of the Reial Acadèmia de Ciències i Arts of Barcelona.

Pons was born in L’Arboç del Penedès, Tarragona, Spain. He has worked mainly in the area of physical anthropology, which deals with the biological variability of the human population and the origin and evolution of the species.

The academic history of physical anthropology at the UB began in 1920 with the first professor of this subject, Telesforo de Aranzadi y Unamuno, whose successor as chair, Santiago Alcobé was later substituted by Pons. Together with Pons, the researchers Miquel Fusté and Antoni Prevosti received their training at the Anthropology Department of the UB with Alcobé. Later, the Anthropology Department was integrated, together with that of zoology, into the present Department of Animal Biology.