About Me

I'm an assistant professor in Physics at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. I currently teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses in computational physics and complex networks.

My research stretches the traditional boundaries of physics, applying mathematical models and methods from statistical physics to study complex systems such as the evolution of language, the spread of contagion or of ideas, and causal analysis.

In many real systems, repeated controlled experiments are impossible. Relatively simple stochastic models of collective processes can reproduce behaviours of real systems surprisingly well, allowing us to compare different mechanisms, and the effects of different parameters of the system. I'm particularly intrested in applications to society and culture.

A key principle in complex systems is that the behaviour of a system can emerge from the pattern of interactions between its many elements. This means that very disparate systems can sometimes be described by very similar models, and that networks are a very useful representation. I also study the structure of complex networks, processes occurring on them and critical phenomena associated with these.

Research topics

Language change, complex networks theory, processes on networks, inference and optimisation

Full list of publications

Current Students

Filipe Barroso, PhD student studying causal networks and root cause analysis

Guilherme Machado, PhD student studying competing contagions and the evolution of behaviour in social networks