The International Astronomical Union names asteroid 2001 QH220 after researcher Jordi Portell

The nomination of the asteroid after Jordi Portell is a recognition of his outstanding work on asteroid data processing in the Gaia mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), where he coordinates several aspects of Gaia daily operations, including asteroid detection.
 
The asteroid in particular, 2001 QH220, was discovered in August, 2001 in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS). The organism responsible for naming comets, asteroids and minor planets is the Working Group Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN) of the IAU, who publishes the new names on periodic bulletins. The Portell asteroid was included in the Bulletin #9 which was published on 21 June.

“This news came as a great surprise. I feel really honoured and grateful to have a Solar System body named after me,” says Portell. “I specially appreciate that such a recognition is related to my work on the daily data processing system of Gaia, where we faced quite a few challenges—but also had quite some fun, especially with the Solar System Objects team in Nice.”

The researcher concludes: “This system, which processes millions of Gaia measurements every day, including known and yet unknown asteroids, is only possible thanks to the hard work of our team. Gaia is really an amazing project.”