Pilar Serra has obtained the Chair on 10 October in the Faculty of Physiotherapy of the Universitat de València. Serra has presented her curriculum vitae to the selection committee, featuring her research project, with public funding, which analyses the functionality treatment in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury (SPI) through the stimulation of mirror neurons with virtual walking, based on the neuroplasticity phenomenon.

By obtaining this Chair, the Department of Physiotherapy of the Universitat de València achieves full autonomy. It can now manage its vacancies independently and does not depend any longer on related departments.

Born in 1984 in Corbera, Serra was a tenured university professor at the Faculty of Physiotherapy of the Universitat de València. She finished diplomatura studies in Physiotherapy (with honours) and in Teacher Training, and graduated in Humanities. She has a PhD in Physical and Sports Education.

Her teaching activity has developed in the field of statistics and the methodology of clinical research, in Physiotherapy Degree and in different postgraduate degrees.

Pilar Serra has focused her research on the biomechanical characterization of pathologies and injuries of musculoskeletal and neurological origin, mainly on people with spinal cord injury. She has also researched the effect of therapeutic exercise on these patients.

As a result of her research, she has published over 70 scientific articles indexed in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). She has also collaborated in ten research projects with national and autonomous funding. She has been the main researcher of six research projects related to biomechanics and technological development, funded by the Consellería de Educación, Investigación, Cultura y Deporte (Valencian Department of Education, Research, Culture and Sport), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and by private entities.

The new Chair has been an academic editor for the journals Plos One and Musculoskeletal Disorders, as well as a reviewer of several international journals. She has supervised seven doctoral thesis, both in the Physiotherapy doctoral programme and in the Physical Education and Sports one.

As a fruit of her research trajectory, Serra has received several research awards on biomechanics and physical activity from different institutions, such as the Instituto de Biomecánica (Biomechanics Institute of Valencia), the Spanish Society of Medical Assessment of Injuries and the Spanish Society of Paraplegia. She has made stays in the Marquette University of Milwaukee and the Università di Bologna, and has 12 years of acknowledged research experience.

In the Universitat de València, she has been the Vice-Dean of Infrastructures in the Faculty of Physiotherapy, the academic director of University’s specific degrees and the coordinator of the doctoral programme in Physiotherapy. Since 2022, she is the Vice-Principal for Sustainability, Cooperation and Healthy Life.