On Tuesday 2 December, Dr Caridad Bagur was appointed professor in the Area of Knowledge of Physiotherapy at UIC Barcelona, during an event held in the auditorium on the Sant Cugat Campus, where she was joined by numerous health professionals, researchers, instructors, colleagues and students from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Dr Cristina Monforte, vice-rector for Planning, Quality and Strategic Development, was tasked with welcoming the attendees and introducing Dr Xavier Bonfill Cosp, professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and director of the Clinical Epidemiology and Public Health Service at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, who presented Dr Bagur’s merits. Dr Bonfill praised Dr Caridad Bagur’s remarkable career, which combined an early stage in elite women’s basketball with a solid academic and research background focused on exercise, health and evidence-based physiotherapy, having published over 50 articles and supervised sixteen doctoral theses. In his laudatio, Dr Bonfill also emphasised the new professor’s key role in the development of educational programmes, her contribution to consolidating the Department of Physiotherapy at UIC Barcelona and her attainment of multiple accreditations, culminating in her becoming the first professor of Physiotherapy in Catalonia.
Afterwards, Dr Bagur delivered her inaugural lecture entitled “Physical Exercise and Its Benefits on Bone Mass Throughout Life”. In her speech, she reflected on her career as a lecturer, administrator and researcher in Physiotherapy, highlighting the Department’s collective contribution to education and research, particularly in therapeutic exercise, paediatric physiotherapy, postural control and the validation of assessment tools. Dr Bagur’s lecture then turned to the role of physical activity, particularly impact-based exercise, in developing and maintaining bone mass from childhood through adulthood. She also announced her intention to resume her early line of research by once again studying the basketball players she examined 25 years ago, now in the perimenopausal stage, to further explore the long-term effects of exercise on bone health.
Dr Caridad Bagur holds a degree in Physiotherapy from the Antoni Gimbernat i Arboç University School of Nursing and Physiotherapy and an undergraduate degree in Physical Education from INEFC Barcelona. The recently appointed professor also holds a postgraduate degree in Sports from the same university school and a PhD from the University of Barcelona.
Dr Bagur’s career as a researcher has revolved around three main lines of inquiry: physiotherapy applied to physical activity and sport and the health benefits of exercise prescription; balance and postural control; and the application of physiotherapy to both normal and pathological human development processes. Recently, Dr Bagur’s research was also recognised with the 2025 June Nystrom Award, which she received at the Physiotherapy Night event organised by the Catalan Association of Physiotherapists.
Since 1999, Dr Bagur has served as a lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, in which she directed the Department of Physiotherapy until 2018. She currently directs the University Master’s Degree in Paediatric Physiotherapy.
