Professor Xavier Bellés, Director of the Insititute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), has been recently elected Secretary of Section V (Biology) of the Royal Academy of Science and Arts of Barcelona (RACAB). 

In accordance with the Founding Statutes, the RACAB is an association of investigators of science and its applications; membership to which is limited by number and through nomination. The aim of which is to act as a promoter and point of reference in the cultural arena and for catalan society in all that is relevant to the Applied Arts.

It was established on 18 January 1764 and currently is situated in the building by architect and Academy member, Josep Doménech i Estapa, inaugurated in 1894. The Archive and the Library of the Academy comprise a reference resource of great historic value, which spans almost three centuries. The library, with more than a hundred thousand volumes, is one of the most important in the country for reference material relating to the second half of the 18th Century.