Jordi Portell is researcher at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and at the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC). He graduated on Electronics Engineering at the UPC (2000) and obtained his PhD degree on Applied Physics and Sciences Simulation also at the UPC (2005).

His expertise on projects related to Space started in 2000 when he worked on the Spanish-Italian X-ray Experiment (SIXE), a spanish minisatellite for which he designed the on-board data handling and communications. That same year he started working on the Gaia mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), on which he has focused most of his work. He started by proposing the on-board payload data handling and compression systems, later moving (on 2005) to the on-ground data processing systems. In 2007 he was the scientific manager of a technological research programme (TRP) of ESA to design an optimim on-board data compression algorithm for the mission (GOCA). He has been the manager of the data processing centre of Barcelona, and until 2016 he has been the manager of the daily data processing system (IDT). He is currently working half-time on the Gaia Project Office as operations and interface engineer, coordinating some of the units and centres working on the data processing and analysis consortium (DPAC).

Since 2013 he is the chief technology officer (CTO) of DAPCOM Data Services, a spin-off company from the UPC and UB, focusing on the commercialization of a versatile and high-performance data compression solution for ground and space.
Since 2017 he is deputy director of the ICCUB Technological Unit.

He has published about 10 peer-reviewed papers and about 30 proceedings. He is one of the inventors of a data compression patent. He has been co-advisor of two PhD theses and 17 master and degree theses.

Jordi is also involved in the SETI project, and has been the technical advisor of the Sónar Calling project for the transmission of a message to the exoplanet orbiting Luyten's star.