Roberto Berjón Gallinas is a Professor at the School of Computer Science, Deusto University. His research focuses on semantic technologies, internet of things, and data integration, with a strong emphasis on mobile applications and open data. He leads two research groups: ICS (Innovación en Ciencias Sociales) MARATON (Mobile applications, internet of things, data processing, semantic technologies, open data) His recent work includes developing smart tracking frameworks for IoT workflows and digital twins, event-driven architectures for IoT systems, and semantic integration solutions for university research. His projects often bridge technical innovation with practical applications in collaborative e-learning and spatial analytics. Key trends in his publications highlight advancements in IoT frameworks , semantic technologies for data integration, and real-time systems using BLE and open data. These works frequently intersect with collaborative e-learning , university transparency , and adaptive mobile platforms .
Xavier Serra is a Full Professor at the Department of Engineering at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona. He is the founder and director of the Music Technology Group (MTG), and leads the UPF-BMAT Chair on AI and Music. He also coordinates the Master in Sound and Music Computing and serves as President of the Phonos Foundation. His research focuses on audio signal processing, sound and music computing, and computational musicology, emphasizing open science and open innovation. Education: BSc in Biology, University of Barcelona (1981) Master in Music, Florida State University (1983) PhD in Computer Music, Stanford University (1989) Research Interests: Audio Signal Processing Data-Driven and Knowledge-Driven Methodologies Music Information Retrieval Cultural Music Analysis (e.g., Carnatic/Turkish/Andalusian Music) Music Education Technology Notable Projects: CompMusic (ERC Advanced Grant, 2010-2017): Multicultural computational music analysis Open datasets: Freesound, Saraga, FSD50K Technologies: Reactable, Vocaloid, Essentia API Recent Trends in Articles: Focus on AI-driven audio processing (neural fingerprints, generative models), cross-cultural music analysis, and explainable music difficulty estimation. Awards: ERC Advanced Grant (2010) for CompMusic Project. Labs/Teams: Director of MTG, Phonos Foundation, and UPF-BMAT Chair. Active in open-source projects and international collaborations.
Professor Valeska Ferrer Usó is a canon lawyer and theologian at Comillas Pontifical University, specializing in abuse prevention in ecclesiastical environments. She coordinates the UNIJES-funded Jordán research project (since 2021) and teaches subjects including 'Christianity and Social Ethics' and 'State Ecclesiastical Law' since 2022/23. Education: Doctorate in Canon Law (2022), Law Degree (2002), Ecclesiastical Studies (2012), Expert in Neuropsychology (2017), Specialist in Spiritual Exercises (2008). Her research focuses on canonical criminal law, restorative justice, and structural analysis of abuse mechanisms in religious institutions. Recent publications address procedural reforms, memory spaces for reconciliation, and interdisciplinary abuse prevention frameworks. She practices law at Madrid's Ecclesiastical Tribunal in marriage annulment cases and contributes to the Society of Jesus' Safe Environment System team (since 2024). Her work integrates theological, legal, and neuropsychological perspectives.
Dr. Rajesh Bera is a Research Fellow at ICFO's Functional Optoelectronic Nanomaterials group specializing in quantum-confined nanostructures. His research examines ultrafast carrier dynamics, excitonic properties, and optoelectronic applications of nanomaterials including quantum dots, nanoplatelets, and hybrid nanostructures. Current investigations focus on intraband transitions in doped nanocrystals, orientation-dependent excitonic behavior in 2D materials, and charge transfer mechanisms in heterostructure devices. Work bridges fundamental photophysics with applications in photodetection, sensing, and energy conversion. Recent publications demonstrate expertise in time-resolved spectroscopy of quantum materials, nanomaterial synthesis via colloidal chemistry, and rational design of optoelectronic devices. Continually develops novel characterization methods to probe ultrafast processes at nanoscale interfaces.
Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)Spain
Prof. Gustau Catalán is an ICREA Research Professor and Group Leader of the Oxide Nanophysics Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). He earned his PhD in Physics from Queen’s University of Belfast (2001) and held postdoctoral positions at IMEDEA (2002–2004), University of Groningen (2004–2005), and University of Cambridge (2005–2009). Since 2009, he has led pioneering research in flexoelectricity, domain wall physics, and strain-engineered oxide materials, supported by an ERC Grant. Education: PhD in Physics, Queen’s University of Belfast (2001) BSc in Physics, Universitat de Barcelona (1997) Research Interests: Gustau Catalán's work focuses on the interplay between ferroelectricity, flexoelectricity, and metal-insulator transitions in oxide materials. His research explores how these properties manifest at reduced dimensions, with applications in nanoelectronics, photovoltaics, and smart mechanical systems. Key areas include polarization dynamics, domain wall engineering, and strain-gradient effects. Recent Publications (2024–2025): The 15 most recent articles highlight advancements in flexoelectricity (e.g., water ice and halide perovskites), domain wall dynamics (e.g., tungsten trioxide), and strain-gradient-induced photovoltaic effects. These studies span materials like PbZrO3, BaTiO3, and BiFeO3, with implications for energy harvesting, memory devices, and nanoscale actuators. Scientific Awards: ERC Grant for flexoelectricity laboratory establishment Advising and Collaborations: While specific students are not listed, Catalán collaborates extensively with researchers across Europe. His group develops novel oxide-based systems and investigates their electromechanical and optoelectronic properties. Laboratory & Team: At ICN2, he established one of the world's first flexoelectricity laboratories, leading a team that explores oxide nanophysics through advanced characterization techniques like AFM, X-ray diffraction, and electrocaloric imaging.
Antonio González is a full Professor at the Barcelona School of Informatics (FIB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where he is affiliated with the Department of Computer Architecture. He leads the Microarchitecture and Compilers (ARCO) research group, focusing on robust and energy-efficient computing systems, including general-purpose processors, GPUs, and cognitive computing architectures. His research spans computer architecture, microarchitecture, compilers, GPU design, and deep learning acceleration, with a strong emphasis on energy efficiency and memory optimization. His work integrates hardware and compiler techniques to enhance performance in modern computing systems. The recent publications highlight a strong trend in energy-efficient DNN acceleration, GPU microarchitecture, memory systems, and near-data processing. His team explores novel quantization methods, adaptive caching, and architectural extensions for vision and AI workloads, published in top-tier venues such as MICRO, ISCA, and IEEE/ACM journals. ACM Fellow (2020) ICREA Academia Award (2014, 2019, 2024) UPC Duran Farell Award (2008) HiPEAC 2024 Paper Award (twice) González has supervised several PhD students and leads competitive R&D+i projects, including those funded by ICREA and the European Research Council. His research group collaborates extensively within UPC and with international institutions. He is actively involved in advancing computer architecture through innovation in simulation, hardware design, and AI acceleration. He is a member of IEEE and ACM, and his work continues to influence both academic and industrial developments in high-performance and energy-efficient computing.
Jose Luis Belmonte Postigo is an active researcher and faculty member at the University of Seville, specifically in the Department of American History within the Faculty of Philosophy, Arts and Humanities. His academic career spans over a decade, with research activity documented from 2010 to the present. He earned his doctorate from the Pablo de Olavide University with a thesis on slavery in Santiago de Cuba (1780-1803), supervised by Dr. Juan Marchena Fernández. Belmonte Postigo's research focuses on the history of slavery in the Spanish Caribbean and Latin America, with particular attention to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Peru, and the broader Atlantic World. His work examines the social, economic, and cultural dimensions of slavery, including enslaved people's resistance strategies, social mobility, and the complex relationships between masters and slaves. He has conducted extensive research on how enslaved individuals navigated systems of power, sought freedom, and maintained cultural practices across the colonial period. His publications reveal a strong interest in the microhistories of enslaved individuals and communities, analyzing how they negotiated their circumstances within rigid colonial structures. Belmonte Postigo has made significant contributions to understanding the regional variations of slavery across the Spanish Empire, particularly examining how local contexts shaped slave societies in different parts of the Caribbean and Latin America. Belmonte Postigo has received recognition for his scholarly work, with a substantial following on academic platforms like Academia.edu where he has 938 followers. He collaborates with scholars across Latin America and Spain, contributing to edited volumes and participating in international research projects focused on slavery and colonial history. In addition to his research, Belmonte Postigo has demonstrated commitment to academic service through peer reviewing and contributing to scholarly journals. His expertise in colonial slavery has positioned him as a key contributor to ongoing scholarly conversations about the legacy of slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Astrid Wagner is a Senior Scientist and Deputy Director at the Institute of Philosophy (IFS) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from Technische Universität Berlin, recognized by the National University of Distance Education (UNED), and previously served as professor for 20 years at TU Berlin. Her research focuses on philosophy of culture, science epistemology, and digital society challenges. Key interests include philosophy of language, perception phenomenology, pragmatism, and ethical implications of digital transformation. Recent work examines uncertainty dynamics, trust frameworks, post-truth phenomena, infodemics, conspiracy theories, cognitive vulnerability, and digital citizenship. Wagner leads major research initiatives including the INconRES project on ethical-epistemological keys to digital social dynamics (2021-2025), the ORTEGA-CM interdisciplinary innovation consortium on José Ortega y Gasset's legacy (2024-2026), and previously directed the RESPONTRUST project combating COVID-19 disinformation (2021-2023). She co-leads the DESTERRA project analyzing disinformation's societal foundations (2022-2025) and participates in UCM's Rationality, Knowledge and Action research group. She serves on Spain's Committee of Experts for National Security against disinformation, advises the Congressional Science Office, and holds editorial positions at the Journal of Ortega Studies. Wagner contributes to GENET Association's Gender Studies Network and juries for the Princess of Asturias Award and Javier Muguerza Philosophy Prize.
Chang-Tai Hsieh is the Phyllis and Irwin Winkelried Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is also a PCL Faculty Scholar with the university. His academic appointments include being a Research Associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Senior Fellow at the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development, and a member of the Steering Group of the International Growth Center in London. His research interests focus on economic development, growth in Asia and Latin America, and applied economics, with particular expertise in macroeconomics. He has conducted extensive research on growth and development patterns across different regions, with special attention to China's economic transformation. His work examines resource allocation, innovation dynamics, trade policy impacts, and structural economic changes. Hsieh's recent publications reveal a strong focus on US-China economic relations, Chinese economic development, and the dynamics of innovation and growth. His research spans multiple subfields including trade policy, resource allocation, economic measurement, and the political economy of development. He has made significant contributions to understanding the economic transformation in East Asia, particularly regarding China's growth model and its implications for global trade. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship Elected Member of Academia Sinica Two-time recipient of the Sun Ye-Fang Prize Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow of the Econometric Society Hsieh has been a visiting scholar at multiple Federal Reserve Banks (San Francisco, New York, and Minneapolis), the World Bank's Development Economics Group, and the Economic Planning Agency in Japan. He is also an active commentator on economic policy, with numerous opinion pieces published in Commonwealth Magazine, Project Syndicate, and other major outlets, particularly focusing on US-Taiwan-China economic relations and trade policy.
Daniel Recasens is a Full Professor in the Department of Catalan Philology at the Faculty of Arts, Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he has been a permanent faculty member since 1985. He is also affiliated with the Institute for Catalan Studies as a researcher. His academic work centers on experimental phonetics and phonology, with a focus on Romance languages, particularly Catalan. Research Interests: Daniel Recasens specializes in Experimental Phonetics , Phonology , Sound Change , and Phonetic and Phonological Universals . His research investigates articulatory and acoustic aspects of speech production, including coarticulation, assimilation, blending, and the phonetic motivations behind diachronic sound changes in Romance languages. He employs advanced techniques such as ultrasound imaging, electropalatography (EPG), and acoustic analysis to study consonant clusters, vowel-consonant interactions, and the evolution of phonological systems. Scientific Publications and Trends: His recent publications (2020–2025) reflect a consistent focus on the articulatory and acoustic foundations of phonological processes. Key themes include dynamic blending in fricative sequences, tongue configuration in stop-liquid clusters, and the phonetic causes of palatalization and vowel changes. His work combines empirical data with theoretical models such as the Degree of Articulatory Constraint (DAC) model, contributing significantly to laboratory phonology and historical linguistics. Scientific Awards: Member, Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea), 2018 Advising and Research Grants: Daniel Recasens has mentored several doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, including Clara Isabel Rodriguez Casado, Aina Espinosa, and Fernando Sánchez-Miret. While specific grant details are not listed, his extensive publication record and leadership in experimental phonetics suggest sustained research funding and collaborative projects in phonetic and phonological research. Labs and Research Teams: He is associated with the Center for Theoretical Linguistics (CLT) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a research group dedicated to theoretical and experimental studies of language. His work often involves collaboration with phonetics laboratories and international scholars in the fields of articulatory phonetics and historical linguistics.
Carme Torras Genís is a Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), affiliated with the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics (IRI) in Barcelona and the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). Her career spans over three decades, focusing on robotics, neurocomputing, and artificial intelligence with applications in healthcare and deformable object manipulation. M.Sc. in Mathematics (University of Barcelona, 1978) M.Sc. in Computer Science (University of Massachusetts, 11981) Ph.D. in Computer Science (UPC, 1984) Research Interests : Robotic manipulation of deformable objects (especially textiles) Neurocomputing and machine learning for robotic control Human-robot interaction and assistive robotics Computational topology for cloth state representation Ethics in social robotics and AI Medical applications of robotics for neuromuscular disease assessment Scientific Leadership : ERC Advanced Grant recipient (2016) IEEE and EurAI Fellow Coordinator of Horizon Europe project SoftEnable and former ERC project CLOTHILDE Editorial leadership in IEEE Transactions on Robotics and multiple journals Active in ethics committees and AI policy advisory boards Advisory Committee of Ethics in AI (Catalan Government) Vice-President of CSIC Ethics Committee Member of Royal Academy of Engineering (Spain)
Pablo Fajardo Peña is a Full Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). He leads the Plasmas and Space Propulsion Team (EP2) and co-directs the Aerospace Engineering Research Group. His research focuses on advanced propulsion technologies for space applications, including plasma thrusters, electric propulsion, and fluid-thermal systems. Professor Peña's work spans computational modeling of plasma dynamics, experimental characterization of propulsion systems, and development of novel thrusters like Hall effect thrusters and electrospray systems. His recent publications analyze plasma discharge mechanisms, thruster plume behavior, magnetic nozzle effects, and propellant interactions. He leads multiple EU and Spanish-funded projects including HIPATIA (Helicon Plasma Thruster), CHEOPS (Hall Effect Orbital Propulsion), and ADAPT (Advanced Plasma Propulsion). These initiatives focus on developing efficient propulsion systems for spacecraft and addressing challenges in space debris removal. Professor Peña supervises doctoral research on plasma diagnostics and thruster simulation, and has developed simulation tools like HYPHEN (Hybrid Plasma Thruster Holistic Environment). His team collaborates with ESA, Airbus, and SENER Aeroespacial on propulsion technology validation.
Li Azinovic-Yang serves as an Assistant Professor of Accounting and IBM Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her research examines corporate disclosure dynamics through analytical modeling and data analysis, focusing on intersections with firm innovation, competition structures, and labor practices. Education: PhD in Accounting, Columbia Business School Master in Banking and Finance, University of Zurich Bachelor in Finance, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Her research spans corporate disclosure antecedents and consequences, particularly investigating how information transparency affects firm innovation strategies, competitive market structures, and labor policy implementation. Current work analyzes disclosure regulation's welfare impacts and strategic communication in corporate experimentation contexts through rigorous analytical frameworks. Recent publications demonstrate strong focus on accounting standard evolution and diversity initiatives, revealing how regulatory stability shifts impact financial reporting and how diversity targets transform organizational behavior. Her work bridges theoretical accounting models with real-world corporate practices. Scientific Recognition: IBM Faculty Fellow As an active researcher, Azinovic-Yang maintains significant industry engagement through media coverage in outlets like Forbes and CBS Newsroom. Her work on innovation disclosure regulation generated podcast interviews on The Finance Bro, while diversity research received mainstream news attention. She contributes to academic discourse through Booth School publications and maintains an active research pipeline examining capital rationing incentives and strategic communication.
Dr. Steven Kemp is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Law at the University of Girona, Spain. His research focuses on the intersection of criminal law, cybercrime, and criminological analysis, with affiliations to institutions like UNICRI, Open University of Catalonia, and the Institute of Public Security of Catalonia. His work spans digital security, fraud victimization, and sentencing disparities. Current roles: Serra Hunter Fellow, University of Girona (2023–present); Collaborating Teacher, UNICRI (2024–present) Previous roles: Associate Professor, University of Girona (2015–2021); Postdoctoral Researcher, Pompeu Fabra University (2021–2023) and University of Manchester (2021) His research interests include: Cybercrime dynamics during global crises (e.g., pandemic-related fraud trends) Victimization patterns in digital societies, particularly among older adults Legal implications of smart technologies and cybersecurity frameworks Comparative criminal justice systems, especially plea bargaining and sentencing disparities Key trends in his recent publications (2025–2019) highlight: Rising cyberfraud incidents and their societal impacts Interdisciplinary approaches to digital security and legal systems Statistical modeling of crime trends post-COVID-19 Behavioral responses to cybercrime risks Scientific recognition includes: Serra Hunter Fellow He actively collaborates with research groups like the Research Group in the Seminar of Criminal and Criminological Sciences and contributes to public policy initiatives in cybersecurity and fraud prevention.
Jan Eeckhout is an ICREA Research Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona, specializing in macroeconomic theory, labor markets, and urban economics. His work focuses on market power dynamics, wage inequality, and technological impacts on labor and urban systems. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE). Eeckhout has received a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant (€2.45M) for research on 'Macro Market Power and Distribution.' He authored the influential book The Profit Paradox (2021), exploring how dominant firms reshape labor markets and economies, translated into multiple languages. His research frequently appears in top journals like the Quarterly Journal of Economics and Review of Economic Studies. Research Interests: Macro-Labor Theory, Labor Markets, Urban Economics, Market Power, and Economic Inequality. Recent work examines technological origins of labor market stagnation, IT-driven urban polarization, and wealth effects on worker productivity. Advising and Grants: Supervises PhD students (e.g., Milena Djourelova, David Puig) and collaborates with institutions globally (CEMFI, EUI, Sciences Po). His team includes co-authors like Jan De Loecker and Philipp Kircher. Active in policy discussions via think tanks and media outlets like VoxEU and the NYT. Labs/Teams: Leads a diverse research group at UPF, with projects on market power, urban economics, and labor dynamics.
