José Manuel Menéndez García was a Full Professor in the Department of Signals, Systems and Radiocommunications at the School of Telecommunication Engineering of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ETSIT-UPM). He co-founded the Visual Telecommunications Application Group (GATV) in 2004 and directed it until 2019, developing an intense research activity in visual communications, digital television and computer vision.
Throughout his career he served as Principal Investigator in 108 of the 173 GATV research projects — the vast majority — spanning European calls (FP6, FP7, Horizon 2020), national calls, and private contracts (Art. 83 LOU). He published 230 articles in national and international journals and conference proceedings, 82 invited talks, 8 book chapters and 6 books. He supervised 21 doctoral theses, 16 final degree projects (PFC), 30 master’s theses (TFM) and 54 bachelor’s theses (TFG), and supervised 44 company internships and 8 pre-doctoral stays at European universities and research centres.
From January 2015 until his passing, he directed the RTVE-UPM Chair, a leading centre for audiovisual innovation in Spanish academia. He was a founding member of UHD Spain and a Senior Member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, acting as a regular reviewer for its journals and conferences since 2000. He also served as an evaluator for the IET Society from 2009 and as evaluator/auditor of European Commission projects and National Programmes.
He promoted the creation of 4 technology-based spin-offs and directed 2 University-Industry Chairs. Together with co-authors from UPM and other institutions, he holds 3 granted patents and 12 software registrations.
He passed away on 18 September 2025. His contribution is the founding stone upon which the current GATV is built.
