Arturo Azcorra

Life and career

Azcorra graduated from Loy Norrix High School (Michigan, USA) in 1980. In 1986, he received his M.Sc. degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) (Technical University of Madrid) (Madrid, Spain), with the "Sobresaliente" (Outstanding) grade, and was subsequently awarded the Price Waterhouse Prize for Best Student in 1986. He then obtained his Ph.D. in Telecommunications Engineering from the same university in 1989, receiving the National Award COIT-AEIT-ANIEL (AMETIC) for Best Thesis (Premio Nacional a la Mejor Tesis Doctoral). In 1993, he obtained an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa, graduating first in his class.

He began his career in the Madrid Metropolitan Company (Compañía del Metropolitano de Madrid), where he developed the software for ten-trip tickets and monthly passes, while simultaneously performing research work in telecommunications at the UPM. He was an Associate Professor at UPM from 1989 to 1998, the year he moved to the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) (Charles III University of Madrid) where he became Full Professor and founder of the NETCOM Research Group on Networks and Communication Technologies, which he has coordinated since, at the Department of Telematics Engineering. He was later on appointed Deputy Vice-Provost for Academic Infrastructures at the UC3M and held this post from 2000 to 2007. He was a Visiting Researcher at ICSI University of California at Berkeley (USA) in 1999 and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (USA) in 2002. In 1998 he was appointed Director of the UC3M Telefónica Chair and worked in this role until 2009. In June 2002 he earned the distinction of being named IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Senior Member. From 2003-2008 he was Director of REDIMadrid, the Telematics Research Network of the Community of Madrid. From 2006 to November 2009 he was Director of the international research IMDEA Networks Institute.

In November 2009 he was appointed Director General for Technology Transfer and Corporate Development at the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN)(now known as Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness / Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad - MINECO), a position he held until his appointment as Director General at the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial - CDTI), an agency of the MICINN, on May 30, 2010. In February 2012 he resigned as Director General of CDTI and returned to his post as Full Professor at the Department of Telematics Engineering at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and Director of IMDEA Networks Institute.

He has participated in or directed 57 advanced research projects, mainly in the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development of the European Union ESPRIT, RACE, ACTS, IST and ICT. He was the coordinator of the European Networks of Excellence E-NET, E-NEXT and CONTENT, and of the European project CARMEN, and he is currently coordinating the EU projects 5G-TRANSFORMER (ends December 2019) and 5G-CROSSHAUL (ends December 2017). He has licensed technological developments in telecommunications for Ericsson-Telebit Denmark, NEC Europe and Huawei China. He has also performed advisory and technological consulting work for organizations such as Servicom, the European Space Agency, MFS-Worldcom, the Community of Madrid, RENFE, REPSOL, the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte), Ericsson-Telebit and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. He is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Future Internet PPP, European Commission, since February 2012. He was a member of the Steering Board of the European Union 5G Public-Private Partnership (5G-PPP) during its inception period 2013 to 2015. From 2013 to 2017 he was also a member of the Steering Board of the NetWorld2020 European Technology Platform (ETP) (formerly Net!Works & ISI ETPs), to which he remains engaged as Chairman of its Expert Advisory Group. Since 2014 he is partnership Board member and member of the Vision Group within the 5G Infrastructure Association, and since 2015 he is Vice-Chairman of the Steering Board of the 5TONIC Laboratory.

Arturo Azcorra is the founder of the ACM CoNEXT conference series, of which he was the first General Chair. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the IEEE INFOCOM Conference since 2005, and has chaired prestigious international conferences such as IEEE INFOCOM, ACM CoNEXT and PROMS-IDMS. He has authored over one hundred and eighty technical publications in journals and international and national conferences.