Former Members

Rossana Mastrandrea is a Mathematician, currently a Tenure Track Researcher  in Mathematical Methods for Economics, Actuarial Science and Finance at University of Turin. She got a PhD in Economics (2014) at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa working on the International Trade Network as a complex system under the supervision of Prof. Giorgio Fagiolo. From March 2014 to October 2015 she joined the team of Dr. Alain Barrat at Aix-Marseille University to study epidemic spreading on networks focusing on: different social groups and social ties; methods of data detection; problems of data sampling. Then, she moved to IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca as a post-doc researcher first (2015-2018) and Assistant Professor later (2018-2024) focusing her research on theoretical and empirical analysis of complex systems combining Statistical Physics tools and Network Theory. She worked on applications to different fields: Neuroscience, Ecology,  Society, e-Economics. Her main interests concern all systems characterized by heterogeneous agents, complex interactions and emergent phenomena, specially in the field of Economics and Finance. 

Pablo Villegas got his PhD at the Statistical Physics Group at the University of Granada (Spain) under the supervision of M.A. Muñoz. His expertise comprises statistical physics techniques and complex networks theory, with particular application to biological problems. He delved deeply into exploring the idea of criticality in living matter –with an emphasis for neural and genetic systems- as well as its consequences for the emergence of collective phases and cooperative phenomena. In particular, making advances in the mesoscopic modeling of neural cortex dynamics. In 2019 he joined the CRIB project at Institute for Complex Systems (ISC-CNR) in Rome (Italy) where the principal aim was the study of the spatial tree patterns in Barro Colorado Island (Panama), as well as making part of the COBBS experimental team capturing and processing images from flocking of birds. He has been a Postdoc at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (Italy) from September 2020 to January 2022.

He left NETWORKS in 2022 for a senior postdoc position at CREF, Italy.

Fabio Saracco has a Master's Degree in Theoretical Physics at the University of Florence, with a thesis on non-linear Cosmological perturbations. He obtained his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics (String Theory) at the University of Milano Bicocca in 2013, with a thesis on the resolution of strings singularities with A. Tomasiello (INFN, and Physics Dep., University of Milano Bicocca). In 2013 he moved to Complex Systems research: at the Institute for Complex Systems (ISC-CNR, Sapienza Department, Rome), he worked on Economic Complexity, a brand new branch of economic analysis able to measure the productivity capabilities of different countries. In this period, Fabio developed an entropy-based method for network randomization for the special class of bipartite networks, with direct applications in Economic Complexity. Between October 2015 and May 2021, Fabio has been a senior researcher in the NETWORKS research unit at the IMT School in Lucca, working on evolving networks, non-linear algorithms and null models, with applications to online social networks, fake news, misinformation, ecological networks and trade networks.

He left NETWORKS in 2021 for a senior research position at CNR-IAC, Italy.

Guido Caldarelli is the founder and former coordinator of NETWORKS. He received his Ph.D. from SISSA, after which he was a postdoc in the Department of Physics and School of Biology, University of  Manchester.  He then worked  at the  Theory  of Condensed Matter Group, University of Cambridge UK.  He returned to Italy as a lecturer at National Institute for Condensed Matter (INFM) and later as Primo Ricercatore in the Institute of Complex Systems of the National Research Council of Italy. In this period he was also the coordinator of the Networks subproject, part of the  Complexity Project,  for the  Fermi  Centre.  He also spent some terms at University of Fribourg (Switzerland). In 2006 he has been visiting professor at École Normale Supérieure in Paris, in 2007 in the University of Barcelona, and in 2010 in ETH Zurich. He was at IMT between 2011 and 2020. He is ISI Fellow and fellow of the London Institute for Mathematical Science from its foundation.

He left NETWORKS in 2020 for a full professorship in Theoretical Physics at Università Ca' Foscari in Venice (Italy).

Giulio Cimini is Assistant Professor at Università Tor Vergata in Rome (Italy). His main expertise includes statistical physics, probability theory and data analysis, and his work focuses mainly on interdisciplinary application of physics in complex systems of social, biological, economic and financial nature. His current research is carried on in collaboration with researchers from national central banks and other central counterparty institutions. He obtained BSc and MS in physics at “La Sapienza” University of Rome (Italy), and got the PhD degree in theoretical and interdisciplinary physics at University of Fribourg (Switzerland). Before his current position, he was awarded a fellowship from the Swiss Natural Science Foundation for a research project on evolutionary game theory carried out at University Carlos III in Madrid (Spain). Then, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Institute for Complex Systems (ISC-CNR) in Rome (Italy), and a senior researcher at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (Italy) in the NETWORKS unit.

He left NETWORKS for a tenure-track position at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Italy.

Young-Ho EoM is a brilliant physicist who stayed for a couple of years at  IMT School. Interested in network modelling and statistical physics, he worked on the analysis of statistical properties of social networks.
He left NETWORKS for a Professorship in Glasgow, Scotland UK.

Juan Ignacio Perotti is a physicist, born in 1979 in Corral de Bustos, Cordoba, Argentina. He studied Physics at FaMAF, University of Cordoba, Argentina. Then, he worked as a PhD candidate, fully financed by the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET), until he defended his PhD thesis ("Stability as a Mechanism of Natural Selection on Interaction Networks in Biological Systems") at the University of Cordoba in 2006. Later, after completing one year postdoc at FaMAF, with a Fellowship from CONICET also, he moved to Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, to work as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Dr. Prof. Jari Saramaki, where he spend two years studying and working on temporal networks. Currently, he is working as a postdoc at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, within the NETWORKS Research Unit, since November of 2014. His main interest comprehend the study of the physics of complex systems and complex networks, combining theory with applications.
He left NETWORKS for a Professorship in Cordoba, Argentina.  

Walter Quattrociocchi obtained the Master Degree in Computer Science (Summa cum Laude) at the University of Parma and the Phd in Logic and Computer Science at the University of Siena. His research interests include dynamic networks, graph algorithms, and dynamic processes on complex networks. Recently, his work has focused on the modeling of social phenomena occurring on complex networks (i.e. social contagion, information diffusion, opinions formation and revision, social imitation). 

Gianna Vivaldo was a post-doc researcher at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, in the framework of the EU FET Integrated Project MULTIPLEX #317532. She obtained her M.S in Environmental and Medical Physics (Summa cum Laude) at the University of Turin, where she also got her Ph.D. in Physics (topics: paleoclimatic reconstructions; advanced spectral analysis). She was at IFSI/INAF; at ISI Foundation, where she won a CRT Foundation Lagrange Scholarship co-funded by INFN and A.O.U. San Luigi G.; and at INFN in the framework of RDH Project (Research and Development in Hadrontherapy).  Her research interest are: (1) Advanced time-series analysis applied to geophysics, macroeconomics, biological systems; complex networks in biology; (2) Paleoclimatology and climate change; meteorites and cosmogenic radionuclides (gamma-ray spectroscopy); extreme events analysis (volcanic records) (3) Medical physics (hadrotherapy and BNCT, TPS).