Mateo Valero


Mateo Valero Cortés is a Spanish computer architect. His research encompasses different concepts within the field of computer architecture, a discipline in which he has published more than 700 papers in journals, conference proceedings and books. Valero has received nomerous awards, including the Eckert–Mauchly Award in 2007, for "extraordinary leadership in building a world class computer architecture research center, for seminal contributions in the areas of vector computing and multithreading, and for pioneering basic new approaches to instruction-level parallelism." He is the director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, which hosts the MareNostrum supercomputer.

Biography

Valero graduated in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnical University of Madrid in 1974 and got his Ph.D. in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnical University of Catalonia. Among other awards recognising his achievements, Valero has won the prestigious IEEE-Computer Society Eckert-Mauchly Award – the highest international honour in the field of computer architecture – ‘for extraordinary leadership in building a world class computer architecture research center, for seminal contributions in the areas of vector computing and multithreading, and for pioneering basic new approaches to instruction-level parallelism’.
In 2017, Valero won the for parallel computing for his “contributions to parallel computation through brilliant technical work, mentoring PhD students, and building on incredibly productive European research environment" and in 2015 the Seymour Cray award for supercomputing ‘in recognition of seminal contributions to vector, out-of-order, multithreaded, and VLIW architectures’. He has also been presented with the Goode award, again for his contributions to vector, out-of-order, multithreaded, and VLIW architectures; the Association for Computing Machinery Distinguished Service Award 'for extraordinary leadership of initiatives in high-performance computing research and education'; the Julio Rey Pastor Spanish National Research Award in Mathematics, Information and Communication Technology ; the Leonardo Torres Quevedo Spanish National Research Award in Engineering ; and the Rey Jaime I Award for fundamental research.
Valero has combined his academic work with establishing and managing centres for high-performance computing research and technology transfer to businesses.
At these centres he has worked to drive forward different supercomputing networks both nationally and internationally, such as the Spanish Supercomputing Network, the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe and the Latin American Supercomputing Network.
In 2013 he won a European Research Council Advanced Grant to carry out the RoMoL project on new techniques to build multicore chips and the supercomputers of the future.

Awards and honours

Individual:
2020: annual award. Organised by the Asociación Española de Usuarios de Telecomunicaciones y Sociedad de la Información. The award recognises the excellence for being the technological benchmarks of the sector, and given their contributions and commitment to information technology.
2019: . The award is given by Extremadura Center for Research, Technological Innovation and Supercomputing during the commemoration of its 10th Anniversary.
2018: Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle. This is the highest prize given by Mexican government to a non Mexican person.
2017: MareNostrum 4, chosen as the most beautiful data centre in the world. The award, organised by , has been granted by popular vote.
2017: Charles Babbage Award
2017: Recognition for his outstanding career in scientific and technological development, given by the University of Guadalajara in Mexico and by the national committee of the ISUM international congress.
2016: Creu de Sant Jordi award
2015: Seymour Cray Award
2015: Innovative Businesses Forum Award in the Innovative Researcher category
2014: Award of Honour
2013: Distinguished Service Award
2009: Goode Award
2008: Featured in Hall of Fame
2007: Eckert-Mauchly Award
2006: National Research Award for contributions to scientific and technological progress in Catalonia
2005: Research Achievements Career Award
2005: Aritmel National Award –Spanish IT Engineer
2004: Engineer of the Year Award
2001: Julio Rey Pastor Spanish National Research Award in Mathematics, Information and Communication Technology
1997: Rey Jaime I Award for fundamental research
1996: Salvà i Campillo Award
1994: Narcís Monturiol Award
Joint:
2011: First national award for partnership between research centres and businesses, awarded to BSC and IBM for their long and fruitful research collaboration.
2011 and 2015: Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence Award given to Barcelona Supercomputing Center
1994: Barcelona City Award in Technology for the work of CEPBA
1992: Fundación Universidad-Empresa Award for the university department with the best European research projects

Royal Academies, honorary degrees and other affiliations

Valero is a founding academician of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering, academician of the Barcelona Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts, academician of Academia Europaea and corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Pure Sciences, Physics and Natural Sciences and of the Mexican Academy of Science. From 2018 he is Elected Correspondent Academic of the , Elected Honorary academic of the :es:Real Academia Europea de Doctores|Real Academia Europea de Doctores and Academic of the .
He has been awarded honorary doctorates by Chalmers University of Technology, the University of Belgrade, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the University of Veracruz, the University of Zaragoza, the Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Cantabria and the University of Granada.
He is also a fellow of the IEEE and ACM and an Intel Distinguished Fellow.
He is Member of the external Scientific Advisory Committee of the and Benefactor of the graduation of the 2018 promotion from .
From 2017 is member of the Committee for the .

Personal life

Although at a young age he went to Zaragoza and then Madrid to study before settling permanently in Barcelona, Valero maintains strong links with his home town, Alfamén, which has bestowed a variety of honours upon him. In 1998 he was chosen as the municipality's "Favourite Son" and in 2005 a local school was given the name CEIP Mateo Valero.
Aragon has also recognised Valero with a number of honours, such as the Aragon Award – also known as the San Jorge Award – which is considered the most important awarded by the provincial government ; the Special Award for Aragonese Research by the Asociación