Mário Figueiredo, Técnico professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DEEC) and researcher at Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), was recently named Fellow of the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP), “for contributions to optimization algorithms for sparsity-based and wavelet-based signal processing”.

“I am very proud for this distinction, and to be part of such a distinguished group of signal processing researchers, which includes my colleague (from Técnico and IT), Fernando Pereira [EURASIP Fellow since 2013]”. “This recognition is the result of more than two and a half decades of work that wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of several colleagues, namely José Bioucas-Dias, who unfortunately is no longer with us”, he adds.

Each year, a select group of up to four European signal processing researchers are elevated to ‘EURASIP Fellow’, the Association’s most prestigious honor, in order to recognize outstanding achievements of its members and volunteers. The two Técnico professors at the only Portuguese among the list of just over 50 scientists.

Each award consists of a certificate that will be presented during the Awards Ceremony at EUSIPCO2021, which will take place from 23rd to 27th August. Due to the pandemic, it is not yet known whether the event will take place in person or online.

Internationally recognized for his research work in image processing/analysis, machine learning, and optimization, professor Mário Figueiredo is one of the most cited researchers worldwide. He became Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2010, and Fellow of the International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR) in 2009.

In 2019, he was awarded the “IST Distinguished Professor” diploma. Last year, he was elected corresponding member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. More recently, the IT researcher took over the coordination of the Lisbon Unit for Learning and Intelligent Systems (LUMLIS).