The Most Excellent Asunción Gómez-Pérez (born September 3, 1967 in Azuaga, Badajoz, Spain) is a Spanish and Extremaduran computer scientist, researcher, and academic specializing in artificial intelligence and language.[1,4,9] She holds a degree in Computer Science and focuses her work on the semantic web and ontology engineering within the framework of artificial intelligence, making significant contributions to the field.[9] She is a full professor at the Technical University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), where English, Basque, and Extremaduran sources describe her as the Vice-Rector for Research, Innovation and Doctoral Studies, while Spanish Wikipedia states she held this vice-rector role from 2016 to 2024.[3,10]
Elected in April 2022 to take seat "q" of the Real Academia Española as the successor to Gregorio Salvador Caja, she officially joined and assumed office on May 21, 2023.[11,3] In 2015, she received the ARITMEL National Computer Science Award (the National Prize of Informatics from the Scientific Society of Informatics of Spain), the UPM Annual Research Award, and the 12th Best Business Ideas Award.[10,22,27] She is also a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the Ada Byron Award for Women in Technology.[3,1,9]
Early life and education
Asunción Gómez-Pérez was born in Azuaga, in the province of Badajoz, Spain. She studied computer science in Madrid and finished her studies in 1991, graduating as a Licenciada en Informática from the Faculty of Computer Science (Facultad de Informática) at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).[5] In 1993, she earned her PhD in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from the Technical University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). Regarding her business studies, German Wikipedia states that she completed a master's degree in Business Administration and Management at the same time as her doctorate, while Spanish and Basque sources report that she studied for a Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA) at the Pontifical University of Comillas (ICADE) in 1994; English Wikipedia also notes she holds an MBA from Comillas Pontifical University. Between 1994 and 1995 (noted as 1994 in English Wikipedia), she conducted research on ontologies as a postdoctoral researcher at the Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford University, working with Tom Gruber.
She founded the Ontology Engineering Group (OEG), the first research group at the UPM computer science school, which she has directed since 1995.[23] Her name appears on the list of the top 2% of the most cited scientists in the world across all areas of knowledge, published annually by Stanford University. Her writings encompass more than 300 publications in scientific journals, books, and collective monographs with high impact, with Spanish Wikipedia recording over 26,000 citations, an h-index of 66, and an index 10 of 198, while Basque Wikipedia records 15,700 citations, an h-index of 51, and an i10-index of 154.[12]
Career
Between 1991 and 1995, she was an interim professor, followed by an associate professorship from 1995 to 2007.[13] She became the first Spanish female full professor in the field of artificial intelligence in 2008, though German Wikipedia states that she has held the Chair of Artificial Intelligence at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid since 2007.[13,14] Between 1995 and 1998, she served as the executive director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Faculty of Informatics. She later served as the director of the Department of Artificial Intelligence at UPM from 2008 to 2016, and as the academic director of the University Master's Degree and Doctorate in Artificial Intelligence between 2009 and 2016. While one Spanish Wikipedia account places the beginning of her tenure as Vice-Rector for Research, Innovation and Doctoral Studies at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2016, other records in Spanish and Basque Wikipedia indicate she has held this position since 2018, as well as being a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurAsc).[14,20,25,21]
Her research focuses on three main areas: Ontology Engineering, Semantic Web, and Linked Data, with a particular emphasis within Ontology Engineering on the study of lexicons. She is the principal investigator of the IBM-Watson project funded by IBM USA following a call from the Shared University Research (SUR) Awards. The Open Data Institute of the United Kingdom, founded by Tim Berners-Lee, selected the Ontology Engineering Group as the seat of its Madrid node and Gómez as its head.[15] In 2010, she was among twenty-seven researchers invited by the Madrid+d Foundation in the Community of Madrid to participate in "European Corner: Being a scientist in Europe, 27 experiences", and on September 24 of that year, she took part in "Researchers' Night" under the PEOPLE Programme of the 7th EU Framework Programme.[16,17] In 2015, she inaugurated the new open data portal of the National Library of Spain (BNE), which allows access to BNE catalogues and documents using semantic technologies, reflecting the time savings for searches she had advocated for since 2008.[19,18]
With over 300 publications and 20,000 citations, she was included in October 2021 by Stanford University in the Stanford World Ranking of the top 2% of the most cited scientists worldwide across all fields of knowledge.[2] She has received various honors for her research in artificial intelligence, including the 2015 National Computer Science Awards and the Ada Byron National Award for Women Technologists.[29,14,3] On April 7, 2022, the plenary session of the Real Academia Española elected her as a full member to occupy seat "q"—which had been vacant since the death of Gregorio Salvador in 2020—making her the first female computer scientist and specialist in artificial intelligence to join the academy.[21] On May 21, 2023, she was formally inducted into the RAE with an inaugural speech.
Research areas
Her research areas and areas of international visibility include ontological engineering, the semantic web, linked data, data multilingualism, and knowledge management. She has participated in the creation of the Ontologies and Semantic Web field at a global level from its beginnings in the 1990s. Evidence of her international standing and prominence appears in the study Female Semantic Web Researchers: Does Collaboration with Male Researchers Influence their Network Status, where she is identified as one of the three most successful and influential women in semantic web topics in the world.[23,22]
Upon her return from Stanford University, she founded the Ontology Engineering Group (OEG), which she has led since 1995.[24] Since 2012, the OEG has held 8th place in the ranking of UPM research groups, being the leading research group in the Faculty of Computer Science (Informatics). The OEG is composed of 35 people, 19 of whom hold doctorates, and more than 150 students have been trained within it.
Personal life
Asunción Gómez-Pérez is married and has three daughters.