Arturo Azcorra (born November 8, 1962, in Santurce, Spain) is a Spanish scientist and telecommunications engineer who is recognized as a pioneer of internet and network science research in Spain, as well as a promoter of telematics as a scientific and academic discipline born from the integration of telecommunications and informatics.
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 (Madrid, Spain), with "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) to the Best PhD 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 Subway Company (Compañía del Metropolitano de Madrid), while simultaneously performing research work in telecommunications at UPM. He was an associate professor at UPM from 1989 to 1998, when he moved to University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) 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 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 to 2008 he was Director of REDIMadrid, the Telematics Research Network of the Community of Madrid. He was the founder, and Director from 2006 to April 2021, of the international research institute IMDEA Networks.
In November 2009 he was appointed Director General for Technology Transfer and Corporate Development at the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN), 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), the Spanish agency to fund research in private companies, on May 30, 2010. In February 2012 he returned to his post as full professor at the Department of Telematics Engineering at University Carlos III of Madrid and Director of IMDEA Networks Institute. In April 2021, he took leave from these posts, and incorporated to the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation as Director General of Telecommunications and Organization of Audiovisual Media Services On October 6, 2022, he was promoted to Secretary General of Telecommunications and Organization of Audiovisual Media Services.
In October 2018 he was appointed member of the European Academy of Sciences "Academia Europaea". He received, in 2020, the prestigious Reginald Fessenden Award for his contributions to the development of 5G technology. Granted by the ACM-MSWIM International Conference, the award ("for his pioneering contribution to the midhaul and core of 5G networks") recognises scientific contributions in the fields of wireless communications, networking and mobile systems.
In November 2021 he was elevated to the rank of IEEE Fellow in the “Technical Leader” category, for the scientific and industrial impact of his research contributions to the development of 5G technology. In this way, he becomes the first scientist in Spain to be designated IEEE Fellow in the “Technical Leader” category.