PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Humberto Bustince

Also known as Humberto Bustince Sola, Nicanor Humberto Bustince Sola

Humberto Bustince is a Spanish computer scientist at the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) whose research on fuzzy sets, aggregation functions and information fusion feeds into artificial intelligence, image processing and medicine. After a physics degree at Salamanca in 1983, he began teaching at UPNA in 1991 and earned a PhD in mathematics there in 1994. His honours include the 2019 José García Santesmases National Computer Science Prize, the 2019 EUSFLAT Scientific Excellence Award, an IEEE fellowship in 2021 and the 2025 RES-HPC Award for supercomputing. In 2023, he was scientific director of Navarre's new NAIR Center for artificial intelligence, took office as president of the International Fuzzy Systems Association, and faced a UPNA inquiry over payments from King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. Today he is a professor of computer science and artificial intelligence at UPNA, where his recent work measures how uncertain AI models are about their answers.

Timeline

  1. 1958–1994

    Physics and a mathematics PhD

    He is born in Ujué in 1958. He earns a BSc in physics at the University of Salamanca in 1983, begins teaching at the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) in 1991, and completes a PhD in mathematics there in 1994.

  2. 2003–2008

    Subdirector of UPNA's engineering school

    From 2003 to 2008, he serves as subdirector of UPNA's Technical School for Industrial Engineering and Telecommunications and helps introduce computer science courses at the university. His research covers interval-valued fuzzy sets, Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy sets, aggregation functions, image processing and decision making, and he co-authors four books on fuzzy set theory and its extensions.

  3. 2017–2021

    Santesmases Prize and IEEE fellowship

    He becomes an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham in 2017 and joins Jakiunde, the Basque Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, in 2018. In 2019, he receives the José García Santesmases National Computer Science Prize from the Spanish Computer Science Society and the BBVA Foundation, along with the EUSFLAT Scientific Excellence Award for his work on the mathematical foundations of fuzzy set theory and its uses in image processing and medicine. In June 2021, he joins the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the IEEE names him a Fellow at the end of 2021.

  4. March 2023

    Scientific director of the NAIR Center

    In March 2023, Navarre's government presents the NAIR Center, a new artificial intelligence research center, with Bustince as its scientific director. He outlines its three research lines: computational neuroscience, disruptive AI such as custom protein design and adaptive radiotherapy, and basic research on information fusion and deep learning.

  5. May 2023

    UPNA inquiry over a Saudi affiliation

    In May 2023, UPNA opens a confidential inquiry into US$72,000 he received from King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia for a project on information fusion functions. He tells El País that in 2018 he falsely declared the Saudi university as his main workplace, and calls it a mistake.

  6. August 2023

    President of IFSA

    In August 2023, he takes office as president of the International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA) at its 20th congress in South Korea. Founded by Lotfi Zadeh, IFSA coordinates 16 fuzzy-theory associations across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

  7. 2025

    The RES-HPC Award

    In September 2025, the Spanish Supercomputing Network gives him its RES-HPC Award, the highest supercomputing prize in Spain, at its 19th user conference in Pamplona. The Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil names him Professor Honoris Causa in 2025.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor of computer science and AI

    He is a professor of computer science and artificial intelligence at UPNA and a member of Jakiunde. His paper with GIARA doctoral student Xabier González García, "Quantification of Credal Uncertainty: A Distance-Based Approach," is accepted at the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI) 2026; it measures how uncertain an AI model is so a system can say it lacks the data to answer. In August 2026, he warns that most young data science and computing researchers trained in Navarre emigrate after their doctorates.

  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. Humberto Bustince - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. La UPNA investiga a un catedrático por los trabajos que le pagó una universidad saudí para que firmara que trabajaba allí noticiasdenavarra.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Nicanor Humberto Bustince Sola – Personal Docente e Investigador, Universidad Pública de Navarra unavarra.es. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. La Fundación BBVA premia la creatividad, la originalidad y la excelencia en el mundo de la informática bbva.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. EUSFLAT Scientific Excellence Award – European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology eusflat.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Humberto Bustince, catedrático de la UPNA, elegido presidente de la Asociación Internacional de Sistemas Difusos (IFSA) noticiasdenavarra.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. NAIR Center: Navarra quiere ser referencia en Inteligencia Artificial noticiasdenavarra.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. The 19th Spanish Supercomputing Network User Conference Grants an Award to UPNA Professor Humberto Bustince nasertic.es. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. Humberto Bustince en la Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI) 2026 jakiunde.eus. Checked 19 October 2026.
  10. Humberto Bustince alerta sobre la fuga de talento en Navarra tras perder al 60% de sus jóvenes investigadores cope.es. Checked 19 October 2026.