Xavier Serra CV

Xavier Serra (Barcelona, 1959) is Associate Professor of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies and Director of the Music Technology Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. After a multidisciplinary academic education he obtained a PhD in Computer Music from Stanford University in 1989 with a dissertation on the spectral processing of musical sounds that is considered a key reference in the field. His research interests cover the understanding, modelling and generation of musical signals by computational means, with a balance between basic and applied research and approaches from both scientific/technological and humanistic/artistic disciplines. Dr. Serra is very active in promoting initiatives in the field of Sound and Music Computing at the local and international levels, being editor and reviewer of a number of journals, conferences and research programs of the European Commission, and also giving lectures on current and future challenges of the field. He is the principal investigator of more than 15 major research projects funded by public and private institutions, the author of 31 patents and of more than 75 research publications.

Associate Professor of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (Spain).
Head of the Music Technology Group at the UPF.
Coordinator of the Master in Sound and Music Computing at the UPF.
Vicepresident of the Phonos Foundation.
Teacher in the summer workshops of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University (USA).

Education

1989. PhD in Computer Music, Stanford University, USA.
1983. Master in Music, Florida State University, USA.
1981. Bachelor in Music, Conservatori Superior Municipal de Barcelona, Spain.
1981. Bachelor in Biology, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.

Professional experience

2004 - 2007: Director of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at the UPF.
2002 - 2005: Head of the Sonology Departament at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya.
2000 - 2004: Director of the Audiviosual Institute of the UPF.
1999 - 2004: Director of the Doctoral program in Computer Science and Digital Communication of the UPF.
1998 - 2000: Vice-Director of the Audiviosual Institute at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
1991 - 1999: Executive Director of Phonos Foundation.
1989 - 1991: Chief Engineer at Yamaha Music Technologies USA, Inc.
1989 - 1991: Visiting Scholar at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University.
1985 - 1989: Researcher and teaching assistant at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University.

Distinctions

Prize "ICREA Academia" by the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2009.
Universitat Pompeu Fabra Medal 2007.
Prize Ciutat de Barcelona 2005.
Scholarship by the Caixa de Barcelona, 1981 to 1983; Scholarship by Comité Conjunto Hispano Norteamericano para Asuntos Educativos y Culturales, 1983 to 1984; Scholarship by Stanford University, 1984 to 1989. Grant by the Ministerio Educación y Ciencia, 1991 to 1994.
Pi Kappa Lambda, 1983; Phi Kappa Phi, 1983.
Member of the International Computer Music Association and of the Audio Engineering Society.

Patents

Co-inventor of 29 patents related to sound synthesis, owned by Yamaha Corporation and filled in Japan and the USA
Serra et. al. 1996. "Method of and Apparatus for Analyzing and Synthesizing a Sound by Extracting and Controlling a Sound Parameter", U.S.A patent 5,536,902.
Serra et. al. 1991. "Musical Synthesizer Combining Deterministic and Stochastic Waveforms", U.S.A. patent 5,029,509.

Xavier Serra CV

Education

Professional experience

Distinctions

Patents

Publications

Other activities

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