The National College of Mexico elects BCAM researcher Carlos A. Coello Coello as its next member

BCAM researcher Carlos A. Coello Coello is a pioneer in the research area called "evolutionary multi-objective optimisation" and his work has been applied to Artificial Intelligence

The Colegio Nacional de México celebrated the induction ceremony for the new members of its institution on 5 May. Carlos A. Coello Coello is leader of the Combinatorial Optimization research group at BCAM and a researcher at the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional in the Department of Computer Science.

The institution noted that the election of Carlos A. Coello Coello represents a field of science that was not represented in the membership of the Council of the National College of Mexico, such as computing. In Coello Coello's words, "I really feel very honoured, because being a member of El Colegio Nacional is the most important distinction a scientist can receive in Mexico. In addition, the fact of being the first computer scientist to join such an important institution is a clear recognition of the very vigorous and active computer science community in Mexico. Of course, this brings with it an enormous responsibility, since in a way I will be representing my entire community in this important institution.

The BCAM researcher's admission to El Colegio Nacional of Mexico "is clearly the greatest triumph that those of us who do basic research in computer science are recognised as scientists in the exact sciences". For Carlos A. Coello Coello, the next step is to organise outreach events related to computer science. Organising events related to artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, "seeking to demystify and accurately explain much of the false or exaggerated information that circulates on social networks and in some media about current technologies in these areas," he adds.

El Colegio Nacional is one of the most prestigious institutions in Mexico and brings together up to 40 people who are the most important scientists, writers, artists and intellectuals in Mexico. Great figures such as Octavio Paz (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature), Mario Molina (winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry) have belonged to this institution, as well as scientists such as Pablo Rudomín, Bolívar Zapata and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma (winners of the Princess of Asturias Award).

About Carlos A. Coello Coello

Carlos Artemio Coello Coello is leader of the combinatorial Optimization group at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) and Cinvestav 3F researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional.

He studied at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Autonomous University of Chiapas and holds a master's degree and a PhD in Computer Science from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

He has published more than 190 journal articles; four books, including Evolutionary algorithms for solving multi-objective problems (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002; Spinger, 2007), which has been adopted as a text for graduate courses in various parts of the world, as well as the popular book Breve historia de la computación y sus pioneros (Breve historia de la computación y sus pioneros) (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2003). In addition, he has published 60 book chapters in English and more than 25,700 citations of his work are reported to date.

He has received twelve national and international awards and distinctions, including the 2013 IEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award for "outstanding mid-career contributions to a technology that promises to lead to novel applications", the National Prize for Sciences and Arts in 2012, the Marcos Moshinsky Chair, the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation Outstanding Paper Award twice (2013 and 2015), the 2016 TWAS Award in Engeneering Sciencies and the 2021 IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Evolutionar Computation Pioneer Award.

As of January 2021, he became the first Latin American to hold the position of Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation (published by IEEE Press), the journal with the highest impact factor in his field.

In 2022, Guide2Research's Ranking of Top 1000 Scientist in the Field of Computer Science and Electronics ranks him 284th worldwide and number one in Mexico.