Biography

Nuria Oliver is a computer scientist specializing in human-centered artificial intelligence. She is Director and cofounder of ELLIS Alicante, cofounder and vice-president of ELLIS, the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems, and Chief Data Scientist at Data-Pop Alliance. She develops artificial intelligence that can understand people, work with them, and serve society.

She has more than 25 years of research experience in artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, mobile computing, and computational social science. Her research includes computational models of individual and collective human behavior, intelligent and multimodal interfaces, context-aware systems, mobile data analysis, and AI for social good.

Career and education

Oliver graduated at the top of her class in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 1994. She earned her PhD from the MIT Media Lab in 2000, where her research explored perceptual intelligence and systems capable of understanding human behavior.

She joined Microsoft Research in Redmond in 2000. After 12 years in the United States, she returned to Spain to help create and lead a new research organization at Telefónica R&D. She became its first female Scientific Director. From 2017 to 2019, she was the first Director of Data Science Research at Vodafone globally.

Today, she leads ELLIS Alicante, an institute that conducts basic and applied research in human-centered AI. At Data-Pop Alliance, she works on applications of data and AI to social and humanitarian problems.

Research contributions

Oliver studies computational models of human behavior and the design of AI systems that support human decision-making. Her current interests include human-AI interaction, algorithmic fairness, privacy, transparency, interpretability, educational AI, computational social science, and the societal effects of generative AI.

She has authored more than 230 scientific publications and is the named inventor of more than 40 patents. Her publications cover ubiquitous computing, personalized systems, mobile data analysis, and computational models of behavior. Several have received best-paper and long-term-impact awards.

In 2021, she co-led the winning team of the XPRIZE Pandemic Response Challenge. The team developed data-driven AI models to compare intervention strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scientific leadership

Oliver is a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE, the European Association for Artificial Intelligence, ELLIS, and the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association. She is an elected permanent member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of Academia Europaea and the CHI Academy, and a corresponding member of the Academy of Engineering of Mexico.

Her scientific service includes editorial boards, conference leadership, advisory committees, and the evaluation and mentoring of researchers. She has chaired or co-chaired international conferences in artificial intelligence, data science, multimedia, human-computer interaction, and digital health. A detailed record is available on the Program Committees and Professional Service page.

Awards and recognition

Her recent awards include the 2025 Julio Rey Pastor National Research Award in Mathematics and Information and Communication Technologies, the 2025 Talgo Award for Excellence of Women in Engineering, the Barcelona Hypatia European Science Prize, the King Jaume I Award in New Technologies, and the Abie Technology Leadership Award.

Earlier honors include the European Data Scientist of the Year Award, the Spanish Angela Ruiz Robles National Computer Science Award, the European Digital Woman of the Year Award, the Ada Byron Award, and MIT Technology Review's TR100 Young Innovator Award. She received an honorary doctorate from Miguel Hernández University. The complete record is available on the Awards and Honors page.

Public engagement

Oliver speaks to scientific, professional, and public audiences about artificial intelligence and its effects on society. Her invited talks cover technical advances, responsible AI, digital transformation, education, and the future of technology.

She works to make science and technology accessible to the public and to encourage young people, particularly girls, to pursue careers in STEM. Her work and views have appeared in international and Spanish media, including the BBC, WIRED, MIT Technology Review, The Economist, NPR, RTVE, and El País. Selected appearances are collected in the Press Coverage archive.

Short biography

Nuria Oliver is Director and cofounder of ELLIS Alicante, cofounder and vice-president of ELLIS, and Chief Data Scientist at Data-Pop Alliance. She holds a PhD from the MIT Media Lab and has more than 25 years of research experience in artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, mobile computing, and computational social science. Her career includes Microsoft Research, Telefónica R&D, and Vodafone, where she was the first Director of Data Science Research globally. Her work focuses on human-centered and socially responsible AI. She has authored more than 230 scientific publications, is the named inventor of more than 40 patents, and co-led the winning team of the XPRIZE Pandemic Response Challenge. She is a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE, EurAI, ELLIS, and AAIA, an elected permanent member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering, and a member of Academia Europaea and the CHI Academy.