Carlos Algora received a Ph.D. degree in Physics (high efficiency GaAs solar cells) by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. He joined the Solar Energy Institute (IES) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) in 1985 where he is a Chair Professor from 2008.

From 1996 he has been the head of the III-V Semiconductors Group of UPM devoted to the modelling, physics, technology, characterization and reliability of III-V photovoltaic converters and other materials such as Germanium, dilute nitrides and graphene. Together with his team, he has reached several photovoltaic devices with world record efficiency. The applications towards Prof. Algora has oriented his research are the terrestrial and space solar cells, photovoltaic laser power converters for power beaming and power-over-fibre and thermophotovoltaic converters.

He has been the main researcher of more than 60 R&D projects including several EU and ESA projects. He has published around 350 scientific papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings and has authored several book chapters. He holds nine American and Spanish patents and has been the supervisor of 15 doctoral theses.

In 2009 he received the First Edition of the Research Award Prize of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He was the co-editor of the first Handbook of Concentrator Photovoltaic Technology (Wiley) published in 2016 with more than 700 pages. Since 2015, he is the project leader for the development of the IEC 62787 standard entitled "Concentrator photovoltaic solar cells and cell-on-carrier (CoC) assemblies-Qualification” at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) which has been finally published in 2021. From 2016, he has been the Director of the Department of Physical Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics of UPM until 2024.