The keys to work at IMDEA Networks, according to Marco Fiore: hard work and passion

Get to know better our Research Associate Professor in this first part of the interview given by the leader of the Networks Data Science Group

09 December 2020

Marco Fiore, Research Associate Professor at IMDEA Networks, is the head of the Networks Data Science Group on research activities at the interface of mobile networking and applied data science. He was a Marie Curie fellow, and a Royal Society visiting research fellow. He is also senior member of IEEE and member of ACM. In this interview, he tells us how he has ended up at IMDEA Networks and in a future installment, he will speak about his experience working abroad and the future of networks.

How did your interest in science arist?

I think my interest in science and technology and more specifically in computer science is sort of natural. I always was very much interested in understanding how computers work and this pushed me to enroll in a computer science-engineering program at the university. Then I met my future PhD advisor, a professor from Politecnico di Torino, who really steered my interest in telecommunication and computer networks. This is why I enrolled in a PhD on those topics and this is why I am here today.

How did the opportunity to work at IMDEA Networks come about?

I met colleagues from IMDEA at conferences. At one point, a few years ago, I hired one of the very first PhD graduates from IMDEA at my group at Sienna, in Italy. He sort of made an even stronger link for me with IMDEA. Therefore, I started collaborating with people here and had a first-hand experience about the quality of the work environment. Something more than one year ago, I thought about an experience abroad again and I had very limited doubt about IMDEA being an excellent place where to come and Madrid being a very nice city where my family could live.

What are the keys of working at this institute?

The keys to work at IMDEA Networks I think are essentially two. The first one is that here everybody is hardworking: researchers, also admin personnel and the research support team, and you want that kind of attitude towards your work. The other aspect is I would say environmental, because you need to be passionate about what you do and especially in research. Everybody here is super passionate so I think that is a requirement, something that helps a lot when you do your work but it is also a requirement to be here.