About me

I am an engineer turned scientist, driven by a passion for exploring how emerging technologies and big data can lead to discoveries and meaningful societal impact. My career bridges AI, computational modeling, and the life sciences. From developing semantic web technologies at HP Labs to applying machine learning and deep learning to complex biological systems during my Ph.D. at Purdue University and later at the NIH, I have consistently pursued data-driven innovation to address real-world challenges.

Here is a chronological perspective of my professional career so far…

I was born in Madrid, Spain. It was in Madrid too that I pursued a B.S./M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Universidad Politecnica. Following graduation, I joined Hewlett-Packard Labs in Bristol, UK as a research assistant developing electronic-commerce automation technologies. While in Bristol I published two Technical Reports with HP that you can find here and here. After a year in Bristol, I moved back to Madrid to join the Hewlett-Packard Consulting department, where I worked first as a technical consultant and later as a project manager.

In the early 2000s, I decided it was time for a change. I was very interested in finding ways to apply my engineering skills to solving biological problems. After many standarized tests and a few applications, in 2004, I was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. It is at Purdue where I had my first encounter with fMRI thanks to Prof. Thomas Talavage. In his lab, and through collaborations with Prof. David Kemmerer, I conducted research in auditory neuroscience and language representation.

After five wonderful years at Purdue (which brings us to December, 2009) I moved to the D.C. area to join the Section on Functional Imaging Methods (SFIM) at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, MD as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. In 2014, I became a Staff Scientist within the Section, which has been (and still is) my research home for over a decade now. Later in 2021, I became Senior Associate Scientist. At the SFIM, I work on a veriety of projects aimed at improving the quality of fMRI signals and advancing our understanding of the functional organization of the human brain. Topics to which I currently devote a significant amount of time include resting state fMRI, time-varying functional connectivity, realtime fMRI and understanding the role of intrinsic cognition in shaping functional connectivity. You can find additional details about my research here. Also, in this website you can find a list of all my publications with links to PDFs, as well as data and talks when those are available.