Nicanor Humberto Bustince Sola (born 1958 in Uxue, Navarre) is a Spanish and Navarrese mathematician, computer scientist, and professor specializing in artificial intelligence and soft computing. He serves as a full, tenured professor at the Public University of Navarre. He earned his BSc from the University of Salamanca and his PhD from the Public University of Navarre. His research fields encompass fuzzy logic, data fusion, machine learning, and image processing. His distinctions include being a Fellow of the IEEE, a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Caballero de Honor of the Orden del Cuto Divino, and Caballero de Honor y de Mérito of Oliva de Navarra y de la Tostada de Arróniz.
Biography
Bustince received his degree in Physics from the University of Salamanca in 1983 and earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Public University of Navarre in 1994. He has taught at the Public University of Navarre since 1991 and currently serves as a Full Professor in the Department of Automatics and Computation.[1]
From 2003 to 2008, he was subdirector of the Technical School for Industrial Engineering and Telecommunications, where he contributed to the development and implementation of computer science programs. He has also been involved in the creation of the university's Data Science degree and continues to teach artificial intelligence to computer science students.[2] In 2023, Bustince was elected President of the International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA).[3,11]
Editorial Work
Bustince serves as editor-in-chief of Mathware & Soft Computing and of Axioms.[4] He has previously served as associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems and is on the editorial boards of Fuzzy Sets and Systems, Information Fusion, International Journal of Computational Intelligence and Applications, and Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems.[5]
Honors and Memberships
In 2017, they were appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham and were awarded the Cross of Carlos III the Noble by the Government of Navarra. In 2019, they received the National Computer Science Prize José García Santesmases, awarded by the Spanish Computer Science Society and the BBVA Foundation, along with the Scientific Excellence Award from the European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT). In 2025, they received the RES-HPC Award from the Spanish Supercomputing Network and was named Professor Honoris Causa by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte.
They were elected a Member of the Basque Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters (Jakiunde) in 2018 and became a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2021. They are a Fellow of the International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA) and were named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2022. Additionally, they have served as Caballero de Honor (Honor Knight) of the Orden del Cuto Divino in Tafalla since 2014, and as Caballero de Honor y de Mérito de la Oliva de Navarra y de la Tostada de Arróniz since 2025.
