Mini-CV

Detailed CV

I have been interested in computers and machines since I can remember. After much insistence, my parents, with a lot of effort, got me a ZX Spectrum +2A, which I used to teach myself how to program at age 8.

Later, I moved to a PC architecture and played along with Borland Turbo C++. Around 15, I started to use Linux, and my generous high-school teacher got me some classic books like the Dragon Book, Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs, and Tanenbaum's Structured Computer Organization.

This allowed me to understand computers from the ground up. At the time, my main interests were systems and compilers. While in high school, I participated in the 1st and 2nd Spanish Olympiad in Informatics, placing 9th both times.

In 1998, I went to study computer science at Madrid's Technical University. There, I was quickly introduced to functional and logic programming, which became my tools of choice, in particular Haskell.

In 2004, while reading SPJ's The Implementation of Functional Programming Languages, I met my future PhD advisor Jim Lipton. To my great surprise, he introduced me to the Curry-Howard-Kolmogorov correspondence, and thus my interest in formal systems and logic started.

Then, I joined the Babel research group, a precursor of IMDEA Software, where I completed my Master's and PhD studies.

In 2012, I joined the programming languages group at the University of Pennsylvania to start my post-doctoral studies. There I was exposed to the theory community, which I highly enjoyed, and more crucially, to the Rocq Prover and interactive theorem proving, which is my main line of work today with the Lean Programming Language and Proof Assistant.

More about me

I enjoy contributing to free software projects and collaborative development. Free software and in particular the GNU toolchain and the Linux kernel were essential for me back in the day. I'm very grateful to all of the people that made that possible.

My editor of choice is GNU Emacs; this is the patch I'm most proud of.

Personal

I'm a native of Las Pedroñeras, Cuenca, Spain, in the "La Mancha" region and included in "La Ruta de Don Quijote". My hometown is distinctly known for its superior purple garlic, ajo morado.

I was close to pursuing a career in piano playing. I maintain interest in piano and classical music and try to practice often. My favorite pianists are Alicia de Larrocha and Claudio Arrau.

See them in action here, here, and here performing at their best. As an heir to Liszt's spiritual school, Arrau's playing is one of the last witnesses of the romantic style. The most impressive player I've ever seen live is Martha Argerich, just incredible. Rafael Orozco cannot be missed either, in my view, with incredible recordings.

I like audio gear. See NwAvGuy's great blog for more information about audio myths. Building an excellent Hi-Fi setup is not expensive; don't be fooled by snake-oil vendors. An O2 amplifier and a pair of good headphones will provide superior sound quality for a modest cost. The O2 is open hardware, so you can build it yourself for much less money, but you'll need to invest a significant amount of time.