May 31, 2023 — Researcher Mercè Crosas has joined the Barcelona Supercomputing Center’s (BSC-CNS) team as the lead of the newly formed Computational Social Sciences program. This innovative program’s primary focus is to enhance the research within this sector by utilizing the power of supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and the analysis of big data.

Crosas brings with her a wealth of experience from Harvard University, having served as the head of research data management and leading the office of data science and technology at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Equipped with a Physics degree from the University of Barcelona, a PhD in Astrophysics from Rice University, and pre and postdoctoral degrees from Harvard University’s Center for Astrophysics, Crosas recently ended a 32-year tenure in the US. During 2021-2023, she held the position of Secretary for Open Government at the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The Computational Social Sciences program at BSC is an exceptional initiative in a European supercomputing center. Its mission is to discover new applications of data and supercomputing in the realm of social science research. This includes numerous fields like economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, geography, psychology, cognitive science, and digital humanities. The latter is a research domain where computing and humanities intersect, contributing to areas such as history, literature, linguistics, archaeology, and cultural heritage.

About BSC

Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the national supercomputing center in Spain. The center is specialized in high performance computing (HPC) and manages MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, located in the Torre Girona chapel.

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Source: Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación