PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Felisa Verdejo Maillo

Felisa Verdejo Maillo is a Spanish computer scientist whose research applied natural language processing to Spanish and connected it with intelligent systems. She earned doctorates at Pierre et Marie Curie University in 1975 and Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1980, and taught and researched at four Spanish universities before joining UNED in 1991. At UNED, her work linked natural language processing and information retrieval with interactive learning; she developed Spanish-language resources and tools, led national and European projects, and served as a visiting researcher at USC's Information Sciences Institute in 2011–2012. She became a EurAI Fellow in July 2002, received the José García Santesmases National Prize in Computer Science in 2014, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alicante in 2016; her 2020 research addressed social-media reputation monitoring. As of October 2026, she is Professor Emerita in Computer Languages and Systems at UNED, after a research period there from 1991 to 2022.

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Timeline

  1. 1950–1980

    Two doctoral theses

    Born in Béjar, Salamanca, in 1950, she earns a doctorate in applied mathematics (computer science) at Pierre et Marie Curie University in 1975 with the thesis “Un estudio del lenguaje natural. Simulación de un robot capaz de mantener un diálogo en español.” In 1980, she earns a doctorate in physical sciences at Universidad Complutense de Madrid with “Un analizador semántico para un sistema pregunta-respuesta en lenguaje radical,” supervised by Antonio Vaquero Sánchez.

  2. 1978–1991

    Spanish university posts

    She teaches and researches at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1978–1981) and the University of the Basque Country (1981–1985). In 1983, she founds and presides over SEPLN, the Spanish natural-language processing society, and co-founds AEPIA, Spain's artificial-intelligence association. She teaches and researches at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (1985–1991) and joins UNED in 1991.

  3. 1991–2022

    Research for Spanish language technology

    At UNED, her work combines natural language processing and information retrieval with interactive learning environments. She develops resources, tools, evaluation tasks and metrics for automatic Spanish-language processing in intelligent systems, coordinates national and European research projects through broad consortia, and serves as a visiting researcher at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California in 2011–2012.

  4. July 2002

    A EurAI fellowship

    She becomes a EurAI Fellow in July 2002.

  5. 2014

    A national computing prize

    She receives the José García Santesmases National Prize in Computer Science in 2014.

  6. 2016

    An honorary doctorate

    The University of Alicante awards her an honorary doctorate on 28 January 2016.

  7. 2020

    Reputation monitoring on social media

    In 2020, she publishes “Integrating learned and explicit document features for reputation monitoring in social media,” a study on document features for social-media reputation monitoring.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor Emerita at UNED

    She is Professor Emerita in the Department of Computer Languages and Systems at UNED. Her research career at the university spans 1991–2022.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

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  1. Investidura Doctores Honoris Causa. Memoria Universidad de Alicante 2015–16 web.ua.es. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. MARIA FELISA VERDEJO MAILLO - Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) portalcientifico.uned.es. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Felisa Verdejo en.wikipedia.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Reconocimiento a la trayectoria científica de socios jubilados en SEPLN 2022 sepln.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. web.nlp.uned.es - Felisa Verdejo sites.google.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. University of Alicante honorary degree recipients - Chronological order web.ua.es. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. MARIA FELISA VERDEJO MAILLO - Universidad de Jaén investigacion.ujaen.es. Checked 19 October 2026.