CV Lattes
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Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC) (Institutional affiliation from the last research proposal) Birthplace: Brazil
I have a Physics degree from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (1985) and the PhD in Physics from the Universidade de São Paulo (1988). My main research interests are the applications of concepts of Statistical Physics and Stochastic Processes to problems in population dynamics, collective intelligence and social systems. I'm currently editor-in-chief of Physics of Life Reviews (Elsevier, IF: 13.7) and member of the editorial board of the journals , Theory in Biosciences (Springer, IF: 1.3), Mathematics (MDPI, IF: 2.4) e Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution - Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology (Frontiers, IF: 2.4). (Source: Lattes Curriculum)
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The search for the statistical laws that describe the human social behavior is probably one of the most ambitious aims of science. In fact, the very notion of mathematical sociology was introduced originally in the classic trilogy Foundation of Asimov, being then up to par with the futuristic technologies envisioned by science fiction. Like many of those visions, especially those regardin…
Cooperative work has long been explored by nature as revealed by the collective structures built by slime molds, termites and ants. These structures and social organizations may be viewed as the organisms' solutions to the problems that endanger their existence. Such 'collective intelligence' suggests that those organizations are selected so as to optimize the problem-solving competence a…
The idea of a collective intelligence behind the complex natural structures built by organisms suggests that their social organization is selected so as to optimize problem-solving competence at the group-level. The benefits of cooperative work have long been explored by nature as revealed by the collective structures built by termites and slime molds. These structures may be thought of a…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
The apparently synchronized movements of flocks of birds, schools, and insect swarms are striking examples of collective behavior in nature that have been elucidated using the tools and concepts of statistical physics. However, the ebb and flow of individuals forming ephemeral groups of variable size (casual groups) can also be thought of as collective behavior, whose main characteristic…
One of the fundamental problems in prebiotic evolution is to explain the coexistence of structurally distinct self-replicating molecules, a necessary condition for the emergence and stabilization of sufficiently complex molecular structures capable of encoding (or even acting as) a rudimentary metabolism. Classic models of prebiotic evolution, such as the quasi-species model, do not allow…
The expression wisdom of crowds or Vox Populi (Galton, 1907) refers to the phenomenon where the collective estimate of certain quantity (e.g., the number of jelly beans in a jar), measured by the median of the individual guesses, can be more accurate than the individual guesses. We don't know of any suitable explanation for the high accuracy of the collective estimate in the case the indi…
Ecosystem engineers are organisms that purposefully modify their environment or habitat aiming at increasing their survival and reproduction. Beavers, earthworms and humans are examples of this category. The key element in the population dynamics of ecosystem engineers is that the number of habitats, which can exist in three distinct forms or states - virgin, usable and degraded, is a d…
(Only some records are available in English at this moment)
Interest in learning how an innovation spreads in society has led researchers to develop theoretical-computational models to investigate the mechanisms that rule the diffusion of a new idea. In the current literature one may find epidemiological, cultural, and game models describing the community reaction to a novelty, where each type of modeling adopts a different approach to resemble so…
Trapping is commonly used in various pest insect monitoring programs as well as in many ecological field studies. Despite this, the interpretation of trap counts is challenging. Traps are effective at providing relative counts that enable comparisons but are poor at delivering information on the absolute population size. Making better use of trap data is impeded by the lack of a consisten…
| 13 / 7 | Completed research grants |
| 1 / 1 | Ongoing scholarships in Brazil |
| 26 / 7 | Completed scholarships in Brazil |
| 2 / 2 | Completed scholarships abroad |
| 42 / 17 | All research grants and scholarships |
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