Enrique Zuazua

Enrique Zuazua is a Distinguished Senior Researcher and the Director of the Chair of Computational Mathematics at DeustoTech Laboratory in the University of Deusto, Bilbao (Basque Country-Spain) where he leads the research team funded by the European Research Council Advanced Grant “DYCON: Dynamic Control” and a Professor of the “Universidad Autónoma de Madrid – UAM” where he holds the Strategic Chair in Applied Mathematics. 

I was born in Éibar (Gipuzkoa – Basque Country – Spain) in 1961, a small but extremely industrialized town of about 35 thousand inhabitants. More recently the population has significantly diminished to about 25 thousand people, mostly because of the decline of local industry and the transformation of the economic activities to other sectors. In fact, just like many others of my generation, even though I go back regularly to meet family and friends, I have not lived there regularly since 1979, when I began my studies at the Basque Public University UPV/EHU in Bilbao, the main city in Basque Country.

In 1984 I graduated from UPV-EHU with a degree in Mathematics.

I then began my PhD studies at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris, with financial support of the Basque Government, at the present “Laboratoire Jacques Louis Lions”, at that time, the “Laboratoire d’Analyse Numérique.” I received a dual PhD diploma from UPV/EHU in 1987 and the UMPC in 1988.

Since then I have been a Professor of Applied Mathematics in Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1990-2001) and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2001-2008). More recently, since September 2008, I have been an IkerbasqueResearch Professor in Bilbao, where I had the honor of being the Founding Scientific Director of BCAM – Basque Center for Applied Mathematics. In September 2014 I was promoted to Distinguished Ikerbasque Professor.

Since September 2015 I am back to my position at UAM in the Cantoblanco Campus in Madrid.

My areas of research in Applied Mathematics include Partial Differential Equations, Control Theory and Numerical Analysis. These subjects interrelate with the aim of modeling, analyzing and simulating a variety of natural phenomena and industrial processes, with the final goal of contributing to their control and design.

The Spanish and Basque Governments, and various international agencies such as the ERC– European Research Council and AFOSR have funded my research.

I have enjoyed working with many colleagues, all around the world, doing research to discover and re-discover but, especially, learning about these beautiful and lively scientific disciplines.

I am particularly satisfied by my investment in the training of young researchers. So far twenty-three young fellows have received their PhD diploma under my advice and now work all around the world, including Brazil, Chile, China, Mexico, Romania, Spain and the United States.

I have also had the opportunity of being involved in a number of collective scientific endeavors, and through them; I got acquainted with the relevance of mathematical dissemination. In this field I have often had the opportunity to deliver talks and written articles, both for scientific journals and for local newspapers. Some of the latter ones combine Mathematics and Science with other aspects and concerns of our society.