Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)

BSC

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) is one of the world's leading supercomputing centres, with more than 900 employees, most of whom are researchers in four scientific departments: Computer Science, Life Sciences, Earth Sciences and Computational Applications for Science and Engineering.

BSC houses the new European supercomputer MareNostrum 5, one of the most complete and versatile machines in the world (314 petaflops) at the service of the scientific community. BSC also houses MareNostrum 4, so is the only center with two systems on the list of the 20 most powerful supercomputers on the planet.

BSC will house soon the first quantum computer in southern Europe.

It is specialized in High Performance Computing and its mission is two-fold:

  • To provide infrastructure and supercomputing services to European scientists;
  • To generate knowledge and technology to transfer it to business and society.

Created in 2005, BSC is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence, member of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) and manages the Spanish Supercomputing Network.  

www.bsc.es
Excellence and recognition awards
  • In 2015: awarded with the “Human Resources Excellence in Research” seal by the European Commission.
  • In 2011: awarded with the “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” seal by the Ministry of Research, Development and Innovation of Spain
Director of the center
Mateo Valero

Mateo Valero

  • Degree in Telecommunication Engineering by Technical University of Madrid (UPM).
  • Publication of 700 papers and service in 300 international conferences’ organization.
  • Main awards: Seymour Cray, Eckert-Mauchly, Harry Goode, ACM Distinguished Service, "Hall of Fame" member IST European Program, King Jaime I in research, two Spanish National Awards on Informatics and Engineering.
  • Honorary Doctorate: Universities of Chalmers, Belgrade, Las Palmas, Zaragoza, Complutense of Madrid, Santander, Granada, University of Veracruz and CINVESTAV.
  • Fellow of IEEE, ACM and Intel Distinguished Research Fellow; Member of Royal Spanish Academy of Engineering, Royal Academy of Science and Arts; Correspondent Academic of Spanish Royal Academy of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences.
Renowned researcher
Víctor Guallar

Víctor Guallar

  • PhD in Physical Chemistry by UC Berkeley, California (USA) and Autonomous University of Barcelona.
  • Postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, New York (USA).
  • Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis (USA).
  • Professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) in the Life Science Department at the BSC.
The project

Protein engineering to improve plastic-degrading enzymes

Tons of human-generated waste have found their way into the oceans. In particular, plastic waste is extremely difficult to degrade naturally (up to 500 years lifetime) and interfere with the ocean’s flora and fauna.

By engineering plastic-degrading enzymes we could gain an invaluable tool to fight this environmental catastrophe.

Learn how through enzyme engineering we can save our oceans!

More about the project