Igor M. L. Pataro holds a B.S. in Process Control and Automation Engineering (2016) and an M.S. in Mechatronics Engineering (2019) from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Brazil, with a seven-month research internship at the Università degli Studi di Padova in Italy. He earned his Ph.D. with Honors in Computer Engineering from the University of Almería, Spain, in 2024, funded by the Brazilian National Programme for Ph.D. Abroad (CNPq/GDE), and received an International Mention after a six-month research stay at the Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal. His research focuses on modeling, control, and optimization of renewable energy systems, with emphasis on predictive control. for improving the efficiency of solar thermal systems, with results published in leading journals and conferences. He received two best thesis awards: from the EU-Solaris consortium for the best thesis in concentrated solar power and from the Comité Español de Automática (CEA)/Springer for the Best Control Engineering Thesis. Additional recognitions include the Best Paper Award (Doctoral Category, CBA), the PRODEL Prize (CEA), and the Universidad de Almería Best Article Award. He has over ten years of industry experience and has collaborated internationally with institutions in Brazil, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the USA. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher and interim professor of Automatic and Systems Engineering at the University of Almería, where he co-supervises Ph.D. and M.S. students.