Antonio Plaza was born in Caceres, SPAIN, in March 1975. He received the Computer Engineer degree in 1997, the M.Sc. degree in 1999, and the Ph.D. degree in 2002, all in Computer Engineering. Dr. Plaza is a Full Professor with the Department of Technology of Computers and Communications, University of Extremadura, Spain, where he is the Head of the Hyperspectral Computing Laboratory (HyperComp). He has authored or co-authored 980 publications, including 553 journal citation report (JCR) papers, 28 international book chapters and 334 peer-reviewed international conference papers. He has guest edited 26 JCR journal special issues on remote sensing data processing and analysis. Prof. Plaza is a pioneer scientist in hyperspectral imaging(1999-2026), applying this new technique to important problems worldwide (land-cover classification, precision agriculture, water quality analysis). He has helped promoting the University of Extremadura (UEx) to become #12 institution in the field of remote sensing in the world (#2 in Europe and #1 in Spain), as indicated by the 2025 edition of ARWU Shanghai Ranking Research Fields. He has been a leader of UEx in IT activities, being one of the most highly cited researchers in his field in the world (currently #2 highly ranked scientist in hyperspectral imaging, #2 highly ranked scientist in earth observation and #5 highly ranked scientist in remote sensing, according to ScholarGPS) and in Spain (currently top cited Spanish scientist in remote sensing, electrical and electronic engineering and imaging science and photographic technology according to grupo DIH, as well as fourth top cited Spanish scientist in computer science according to research.com). Prof. Plaza coordinated the Hyperspectral Imaging Network project, a four-year Marie Curie Research Training Network (Budget: 2.800.000 Euro) designed to build an interdisciplinary European research community focused on hyperspectral imaging. This project had an important impact on the advancement of the hyperspectral imaging area in Europe. It included 15 European partners, with 9 universities, 3 research institutes and 3 SMEs, resulting in 15 PhD dissertations that helped establishing the current role of Europe as a leader in this field. Through the TOLOMEO and EOXPOSURE European projects, Prof. Plaza also helped consolidating hyperspectral imaging in Latin America, creating an important network of scientific contacts which spans several countries in that continent, increasing the presence of Europe in one of the world's developing regions of most interest. He also established an extensive network in China, being recognized as a Visiting Professor by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Changjiang Scholar by Hunan University, and a Chair Professor by Nanjing University. In addition, he holds and has held very important positions within the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), such as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGRS), 2013-2017, and Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal on Miniaturization for Air and Space Systems (JMASS), 2020-2021. He has also been actively involved with IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), where he served as Chair of the IEEE GRSS Publication Awards Committe (2018-now), Vice-Chair (2019-2022) and Chair (2023-2025) of the IEEE GRSS Fellow Evaluation Committee. As International Education Director of IEEE GRSS (2011-2012), he was the initiator and founder of the successful series of IEEE GRSS summer schools, and also organized four summer schools within the Marie Curie Hyper-I-Net project. He also organized other multiple education and training activities on hyperspectral imaging across Europe. These activities have helped defining a new generation of remote sensing scientists. Prof. Plaza has been recognized in 2015 by the IEEE as Fellow “for contributions to to hyperspectral data processing and parallel computing of Earth observation data.” He was also elevated to Fellow status by the International Academy of Artificial Intelligence Sciences. He was elected as a member of Academia Europaea (The Academy of Europe) in 2020. He is a highly cited researcher (included in the prestigious Highly Cited Researchers List by Web of Science/Clarivate Analytics in 2018-2025), and consistently listed among the 2% top cited researchers in the world according to Stanford University).

Additional information: https://sites.google.com/view/antonioplaza