BCAM’s researcher, Matteo Croci, awarded the XXVIII SeMA “Antonio Valle” Young Researcher Prize 2025

• The SeMA "Antonio Valle" Prize is awarded annually by the Spanish Society of Applied Mathematics (SeMA) to young researchers under the age of 33 whose work stands out for its scientific excellence and potential to positively impact mathematical research.
• Matteo Croci is an Ikerbasque Research Fellow and Ramón y Cajal Fellow in the Mathematical Design, Modelling and Simulations area at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) in Bilbao since 2024
• His research has always been interdisciplinary, working at the interface between various fields of applied mathematics and computational engineering.

BCAM researcher Matteo Croci (Milan, 1992) has been awarded the XXVIII SeMA “Antonio Valle” Young Researcher Prize 2025.

This prize recognises his outstanding contribution to scientific research. Croci’s work is interdisciplinary, operating at the intersection of different areas of applied mathematics and computational engineering. His research focuses on multilevel methods, (quasi-)Monte Carlo methods, high-performance computing, mixed- and reduced-precision computing, partial differential equations with random coefficients, and the finite element method. His research interests further include brain modelling, biomedical computing, and deflation techniques for variational inequalities.

The SeMA "Antonio Valle" Prize is awarded annually by the Spanish Society of Applied Mathematics (SeMA) to young researchers under the age of 33 whose work has demonstrated outstanding scientific excellence and the potential to significantly impact mathematical research. The prize carries an award of €1,500.

Croci made the following statement: “Winning the SeMA “Antonio Valle” Young Researcher Prize is a great honour. Research can be hard: it requires much effort and can be very stressful so it is really meaningful to see my work being recognised. I have recently settled down in Bilbao and I still do not know many of my applied mathematics colleagues here. This prize feels like a great welcome and is much much appreciated. I am really looking forward to meeting everyone in the coming years! I am truly grateful to the SeMA and to the whole national applied mathematics community for this acknowledgment. This award is a significant milestone in my career and a big help! The prize encourages me to continue pursuing my work in computational stochastics and numerical analysis: I look forward to building on this achievement in collaboration with colleagues both in locally and internationally.”

Currently, Croci is an Ikerbasque Research Fellow and Ramón y Cajal Fellow in the Mathematical Design, Modelling and Simulations area at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) in Bilbao, where he has been working since 2024. He completed his Bachelor's Degree in Mathematical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in 2014, graduating with the highest distinction (110/110 cum laude). He then pursued an MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing at the University of Oxford (UK), graduating with distinction in 2015. From 2015 to 2020, he completed his DPhil (PhD) in Mathematics, also at the University of Oxford.

Croci was awarded the Leslie Fox Prize in Numerical Analysis (second prize) in 2023. Previously, he had received the Charles Broyden Prize in 2020 for the best paper in optimization methods and software. In 2023, he was also awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship.

He has published articles in leading international journals such as IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis, SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, Journal of Computational Physics, and SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification, collaborating with several highly cited researchers.

This recognition of one of its researchers reinforces BCAM’s commitment to scientific excellence, the support of emerging talents like Matteo Croci, and the advancement of knowledge in applied mathematics.