Francisco Fernández de Vega obtained his PhD (2001) from the Universidad de Extremadura (Uex), where he is currently a lecturer on Computer Technology and Architecture and Director of the GEA (Grupo de Evolución Artificial) Research Group. He was formerly director of the Computing service of the Uex and Subdirector of Research at the Mérida University Centre. 

He has published over 150 referred papers and coedited special issues of scientific journals and conference proceedings. His research interests include Bioinspired Algorithms (Genetic Programming, Cellular Automata, Epidemic Algorithms) and Cluster and Grid Computing, using Open Source software as a technological basis.

He is part of the steering committee of the Spanish conference on Evolutionary Algorithms (MAEB), and has presented invited tutorials at several international conferences (including ACM's GECCO, IEEE CEC, Evo* and PPSN). He was co-chair of the 1st and 2nd Workshops on Parallel Bioinspired Algorithms, in Oslo (2005) and London (2007) and the 1st adn 2nd Workshops on  Parallel Architectures and Bioinspired Algorithms, in Toronto (2008) and Raileigh (2009).