Professor Hélène Barcelo has been the Deputy Director of MSRI since July 1, 2008, with a year as Acting Director (2018-19). In her position, Professor Barcelo oversees all scientific activities at the Institute.

A native of Québec, Hélène Barcelo received her PhD in mathematics from the University of California, San Diego in 1988. After a three-year postdoctoral position at the University of Michigan, and a semester at the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Sweden, she moved to Arizona State University (ASU). There, four doctoral and eight masters students completed their degrees under her supervision. Professor Barcelo has held visiting positions at numerous universities and research institutes around the world. She is currently Professor Emerita of Mathematics at ASU and Research Associate at the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor Barcelo’s research interests lie in algebraic and topological combinatorics; more specifically, combinatorial representation theory and homotopy theories in relation to subspace arrangements. Prior to her appointment to Deputy Director, she spent the spring 2008 semester at MSRI as a Research Professor in the Combinatorial Representation Theory program. She was also in residence at MSRI for the year-long program in Combinatorics in 1996–97, and she visited in fall 2004 during the Hyperplane Arrangements and Applications program.

Professor Barcelo was formerly the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A, and is now a Handling Editor for the newly founded Combinatorial Theory journal. She has also served on the Executive Committee of the International Conference in Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics. In 2018, Professor Barcelo was inducted as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, and in 2019 she became a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics. She recently completed a three-year term on the Editorial Boards Committee of the AMS, after having served on its Executive Committee from 2013 to 2017. She is also currently on the Advisory Board of MATRIX, the Australian International Mathematical Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. In 2019, she began a three-year term with the Board on Mathematical Sciences and Analytics (BMSA) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

In 2022, Professor Barcelo was inducted as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for distinguished contributions to foundational and applied mathematics, in particular algebraic combinatorics, and service to the profession. In 2023, she was elected to a three-year term as Vice Chair of the International Mathematical Union's Committee on Women in Mathematics.