Salvador Ferrer was born in Barcelona (Spain) in 1951 and graduated in physics at the Universitat de Barcelona. He got the PhD in solid state physics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has worked at the European Synchrotron (ESRF) for more than 16 years as principal beamline scientist, and from 2004 at the Synchrotron ALBA as scientific director during the design, construction, commissioning and operation. Today he is scientific advisor to the Director of ALBA combined with his long carrier in materials science research.