Keynote Speakers

Prof. Carlos A. Braumann, Évora University, Portugal

Carlos A. Braumann is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Évora (Portugal), an active member of CIMA (Research Center in Mathematics and Applications, University of Évora), a member of the Portuguese Higher Council of Statistics, and an institutional evaluation expert of A3ES (the Portuguese accreditation and evaluation agency for higher education in Portugal). His main work, including a recent Wiley book, is on stochastic differential equation models and applications, focusing mostly on biological phenomena occurring in randomly varying environments. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, an Honorary member and former President of the European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (EMSTB) and an Honorary Member, 2019 Career Award holder and former President of the Portuguese Statistical Society (SPE). 

Prof. Maíra Aguiar, Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), Spain

Maíra Aguiar is a theoretical biologist with a strong background in applied mathematics and statistics. She earned her Master’s degree in Statistics Applied to Biology and Public Health from the University of Lisbon in 2007, followed by a double European Ph.D. in 2012 - in Life Sciences from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and in Population Biology from the University of Lisbon. With two decades of experience in mathematical epidemiology, and a foundation in both laboratory and field epidemiology, she has collaborated closely with public health authorities throughout her career.

Trained in nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation analysis, and biostatistics, her research bridges disciplines to tackle fundamental questions in public health through mathematical modeling. Since 2020, she has led the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (MTB) group at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) in Bilbao, Spain, where she is an Ikerbasque Research Associate Professor and Ramón y Cajal Researcher.

Prof. Maria Soledad Aronna, School of Applied Mathematics FGV EMAp, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Soledad Aronna is an Associate Professor at FGV EMAp in Rio de Janeiro. Originally from Argentina, she earned her Bachelor’s at the National University of Rosario and her PhD from École Polytechnique (France). A former Marie Curie and CAPES/Humboldt fellow, she has worked in Italy, England, and Germany, and held a postdoctoral position at IMPA, Brazil.

Her research focuses on Optimal Control (ODEs/PDEs) and Mathematical Biology, particularly disease and pest modeling (e.g., dengue, malaria, COVID-19). She serves on the Executive Board of SBMAC and is actively engaged in addressing gender inequality in STEM, promoting Applied Mathematics in Latin America, and fostering industry-academia collaboration.

Prof. Konstantin Blyuss, University of Sussex, UK

After undergraduate studies in theoretical physics in Ukraine in Germany, Prof Konstantin Blyuss did a PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Surrey, UK 2000-2003. This was followed by PostDocs at the Universities of Exeter and Oxford. In 2006 Konstantin became a Lecturer at the University of Keele, and in 2008 moved as a Lecturer in Complexity to the University of Bristol. From 2010 he is based at the University of Sussex, where he is now a Professor of Applied Mathematics. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

Prof. Jose Antonio Carrillo, University of Oxford, UK

José A. Carrillo is currently Professor of the Analysis of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow in Applied Mathematics at The Queen's College. He previously held academic positions at Imperial College London, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and Universidad de Granada, where he did his PhD. He works on kinetic equations and nonlinear nonlocal diffusion equations. He has contributed to the theoretical and numerical analysis of PDEs, and their simulation in different applications such as granular media, semiconductors and collective behavior. His main scholarship contributions in Analysis of PDEs are in aggregation-diffusion equations: nonlinear Fokker-Planck type equations; the use of optimal transport techniques and entropy methods to analyse theoretically and numerically gradient-flow structures for PDEs and their singularities; the analysis of diffusive and kinetic models for self-organization, and their implications in mathematical biology, control engineering and global optimization.

Prof. Aaron King, University of Michigan, USA

Aaron A. King is the Nelson G. Hairston Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Complex Systems at the University of Michigan, External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He is an applied mathematician and a theoretical ecologist interested in the uses and abuses of models for understanding the dynamics of ecological systems.  His work has focused primarily on the dynamics of host-pathogen interactions at various scales, from individual infections to epidemics.  He enjoys developing, implementing, and applying computational inference techniques for obtaining insight into the structure and function of biological systems.

Prof. Yuliya Kyrychko, University of Sussex, UK

Yuliya Kyrychko is a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, University of Sussex, UK. After completing undergraduate studies in Mathematics in Ukraine, she studied as an exchange MSc student in Brandenburg Technical University, Cottbus, Germany. After that she did her PhD at the University of Surrey, UK. Following the successful completion of her PhD, she was a Research Assistant at the University of Bristol  and subsequently was awarded an EPSRC Research Fellowship, which was held at the University of Bristol. In 2010 she moved to the University of Sussex as a Lecturer, where she is currently a Professor of Applied Mathematics.

Prof. Susanna Manrubia, Spanish National Centre for Biotechnology (CSIC), Spain

Susanna Manrubia holds a degree in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona and a PhD in Science from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Between 1997 and 2001, she was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute (Germany), partially as a Humboldt Fellow. Upon returning to Spain, she joined the Center for Astrobiology (INTA-CSIC), where she held a Ramón y Cajal contract. In 2014, she moved to the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB). Currently, she is a Research Professor at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Madrid).

Her research is interdisciplinary, focused on developing theoretical and computational approaches to evolutionary biology at multiple levels. Her interests include the emergence of cultural patterns and the ecology of social systems. She is the author of more than 140 scientific articles and three academic books, and has been Principal Investigator of research projects since 2004. She has taught at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and is actively involved in science outreach: she is co-author of two popular science books—one of which received the XVIII European Prize for Scientific Dissemination—and has contributed around a hundred popular science pieces in various formats.

She is a member of the Spanish Societies of Physics, Virology, and Evolutionary Biology (serving on the Steering Committee from 2013 to 2016). She was an editor for BMC Evolutionary Biology and Virus Evolution, and served on the Scientific Advisory Board of several research centers. She was Deputy Director of the CNB from 2020 to 2022. Currently, she serves as coordinator for the area of Applied Physics and Biophysics in the Spanish Research Agency (AEI).

Prof. Viola Priesemann, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Selforganization, Germany

Viola Priesemann is a Professor of Physics at the Georg-August University and heads a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen. She investigates learning and self-organization in living and artificial neural networks using approaches from statistical physics and information theory. She also uses these methods to investigate the spread and containment of infectious diseases, in particular COVID-19, and is known to a broad public for her science communication.

Viola Priesemann is the Principal Investigator (PI) of several collaborative research centers on neural networks, coordinator of a research consortium on infodemics and pandemics, and initiator of international position and strategy papers on the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Lower Saxony Science Prize, the Communitas Prize of the Max Planck Society, the “Lise-Meitner-Lecture” of the DPG and ÖPG, and the Dannie-Heineman-Award. She is a member of the Board of the Campus Institute for Data Science, the Cluster of Excellence “Multiscale Bioimaging”, the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Präsidium of “Die Junge Akademie”.

Prof. Lucia Russo, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Institute of Sustainable Mobility and Energy, Naples, Italy

Lucia Russo is a researcher at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), working at the Institute of Sustainable Mobility and Energy (IMES) in Naples, Italy. Her work focuses on interdisciplinary applications of mathematical and computational models, with research interests spanning sustainable mobility, energy systems, and their intersections with complex systems science. She actively contributes to national and international research initiatives addressing sustainability challenges and the development of innovative solutions for energy and transport systems.

Prof. Josep Sardanyes, Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM), Spain

Josep Sardanyés has a degree in biology from Universitat de Barcelona, specializing in systems biology. He started his scientific career in 2004 with a thesis under the supervision of Ricard Solé (Complex Systems Lab, UPF). Since then, Josep has been working in mathematical biology, complex systems, and nonlinear dynamical systems. His research interests are theoretical ecology and virology, also researching in oncology and epigenetics. After his doctoral thesis he completed 4 postdocs, one of them at UCSF (San Francisco, USA). In 2019 he got a Ramon y Cajal contract in mathematics, and since 2024 he has been one of the leaders of the Mathematical and Computational Biology group at the Centre de Recerca Matemática (CRM). He is also a co-founder of the CRM-I2SysBio CSIC Associated Unit. Josep is also very interested in 80s-90s 's arcade video games and is also deep into perfecting his kung fu.

Prof. Nico Stollenwerk,  Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), Spain

Nico Stollenwerk is a theoretical physicist specializing in biomathematics, population biology, and complex systems. Throughout his scientific career, he has worked extensively on mathematical modeling in public health, with a particular focus on infectious diseases such as influenza and dengue fever. He has participated in several European research projects and is currently a Senior Researcher at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) in Bilbao. Nico is also an active member of the Basque Modeling Task Force (BMTF), where he contributes to the regional response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prof. Uwe Tauber, Virginia Tech Physics Department, USA

Uwe C. Täuber received his physics diploma and doctoral degree from the Technical University of Munich in 1992. After postdoctoral research at Harvard University and Oxford University, he joined the faculty of the physics department at Virginia Tech in 1998. His research interests in theoretical condensed matter and statistical physics reside primarily in the study of complex non-equilibrium systems, with applications that range from materials science to ecology and epidemiology. He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2013, served as the inaugural Director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics from 2016 to 2022 and as Lead Editor of Physical Review E from 2021 to 2023.

Prof. Bernard Cazelles, Sorbonne Université, France

Bernard Cazelles's research is centred on the analysis of complex population dynamics in the natural world. He has explored different directions. One of these is theoretical works on the interactions between stochasticity and non-linearity in population dynamics. Another research area is the analysis of infectious diseases, focusing on the complex interplay between several factors: climatic forcing, evolving pathogens, interaction between pathogens, heterogeneity of the immune response and spatial heterogeneity. The development of adapted mathematical and statistical techniques to address non-stationarity is an important aspect of this last research.

In addition to his research contributions, Bernard Cazelles has also held prominent administrative and advisory roles. He previously led the “Ecologie & Evolution” a joint Department of CNRS, Sorbonne Université and Ecole Normale Supérieure. He has also been actively involved in Public Health. He was appointed to the “Haut Conseil de la Santé Publique” (2018-2022) and, since 2020, he has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of “Santé Publique France.

Dr. Seba Contreras, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Dr. Seba Contreras is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and the University of Göttingen, Germany. His research explores the complex interplay between human behavior and infectious diseases, focusing on how societies and pathogens co-evolve. He leads the infectious disease modeling team within the Max Planck Research Group "Complex Systems Theory,"  where he develops new models that incorporate behavior, feedback loops, interventions, and multi-pathogen systems for sexually transmitted infections. His work on tipping points in disease spread was highly relevant for COVID-19 mitigation efforts in Germany. He has received several awards, including the Berliner-Ungewitter Prize for his doctoral dissertation and the recognition of Best Graduate of the Year from the Chilean Association of Engineers

Prof. Alberto D’Onofrio, Università di Trieste, Italy

Alberto D’Onofrio is Associate Professor (tenured) at the Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Geosciences, University of Trieste (Italy), where he leads the Computer Science for Complex Systems Laboratory. He received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pisa, in 1993, and the Ph.D. degree in medical computer science from Rome La Sapienza University, in 2000. He was the Group Leader in systems biomedicine of European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy,from 2009 to 2014, where he was a Postdoctoral Researcher, from 2000 to 2002, and then a Researcher, from 2000 to 2008. Later, he was a Directeur de Recherche with the International Prevention Research Institute, Lyon, France, from 2014 to 2020, and a Visiting Professor with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Strathclyde, from 2017 to 2020. Since March 2022 to January 2025, he has been a Senior Researcher at Trieste University. A pioneer in behavioral epidemiology of infectious diseases, his research interests are at the interface between computer science and statistical physics, with applications to biomedicine.

Dr. Carlo Estadilla, Bristol Medical School, UK

Dr. Carlo Estadilla is a mathematical modeller specializing in the epidemiological and economic evaluation of public health interventions. Currently a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol, UK, he develops individual-based models to assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of opioid-related interventions in Scotland, including opioid agonist therapy and safer drug consumption facilities. He did his PhD in Public Health at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics and University of the Basque Country, where his work focused on modeling the impact and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 interventions and vaccination. With a background spanning applied mathematics and data analysis, Carlo has contributed to national pandemic response efforts in the Philippines and has taught mathematics at several universities. His work bridges quantitative research and real-world policy, aiming to inform public health decision-making through data-driven insight.

Dr. Erida Gjini, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal

Erida Gjini is a principal researcher in Mathematical Biology at the Department of Mathematics, Instituto Superior Tecnico at University of Lisbon. She obtained her PhD in Mathematics in Scotland, UK, at the University of Glasgow. She completed a Master degree in Mathematical Sciences, and a Bachelor of Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Since 2012 she works in mathematical epidemiology, antibiotic resistance modelling and nonlinear dynamics in ecology, microbiology and biomedicine. Her team investigates the different forces shaping diversity in host-pathogen systems, such as natural polymorphisms, immune-mediated interactions, co-infection, host population diversity, spatial gradients, vaccines and antibiotics. 

Dr. Burcu Gurbuz, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany

Burcu Gürbüz is a mathematician working in Applied Mathematics, with a focus on numerical methods, mathematical modeling, qualitative analysis of dynamical systems, particularly in the context of Mathematical Biology. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Mathematics, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. Burcu has held visiting positions at BCAM (Spain) and the University of Nantes (France), and previously served as an assistant professor in Türkiye. She received her Ph.D. in 2017 (associate professorship - doçentlik- in 2021) in Applied Mathematics. She is currently pursuing her habilitation in Applied Analysis.

Prof. Bob W. Kooi, Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Spain & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dr. Bob Kooi specializes in mathematical modeling of ecological and epidemiological systems, employing both deterministic and stochastic approaches. His research applies nonlinear dynamical systems theory to deterministic models, focusing on phase space analysis, stability of limit sets, and parameter dependence through sensitivity analysis and bifurcation theory, with particular expertise in geometric singular perturbation theory for multi-scale systems. For stochastic models, he utilizes numerical simulations and statistical analysis to study long-term dynamics. His work integrates processes across organizational levels, from individuals to populations, addressing key ecological questions such as predator-prey interactions and competition effects on ecosystem structure. In epidemiology, he investigates disease transmission dynamics, control strategies, and treatment approaches, with significant contributions to understanding multi-strain vector-borne diseases like dengue fever in human-mosquito systems.

Prof. Amira Kebir, University of Tunis, Tunisia

Amira Kebir is a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Tunis and an associate researcher at the BIMS laboratory at the Pasteur Institute of Tunis. She specializes in public health modeling with a strong emphasis on gender equity and infectious diseases such as HPV, hepatitis B, COVID-19, and antimicrobial resistance. Dr. Kebir leads the African Modeling and Analytics Academy for Women (AMAX), a Grand Challenges initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she develops innovative, data-driven modeling tools to support health policy in Africa. Her work blends mathematical theory, computational methods, and stakeholder collaboration to build regional modeling capacity and improve health outcomes. She has held prestigious fellowships, including the Fulbright, MujeresxÁfrica project, and has published widely on vaccination strategies, replicator dynamics, and optimal control in epidemiology.

Prof. Tomás Lázaro, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain

Dr. Tomàs Lázaro is an Associate Professor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (BarcelonaTech) and associated member of the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM), the Institut of Mathematics UPC (ImTech), and the CRM-CSIC unit at I2sysbio, where he collaborates with Profs. Sardanyés (CRM) and Santiago F. Elena (I2sysbio). Trained in Dynamical Systems and Numerical Methods through the UB-UPC Dynamical Systems group, his mathematical research focuses on reversible systems, singular perturbations, qualitative theory of planar differential equations, Differential Galois theory, and separatrix splitting. Over the past decade, he has expanded into mathematical biology, working on virology with Santiago Elena's lab and researchers at CBM "Severo Ochoa", ecological modeling with Dani Oro (CSIC-CEAB), and more recently evolutionary game theory with Xavier Jarque (UB).

Prof. Diomar Mistro, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Brazil

Diomar Cristina Mistro is Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil. She obtained her Master and PhD degrees in Applied Mathematics at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. 

Her research interest is the spatiotemporal distribution of interacting populations. Among the problems addressed are the spatiotemporal pattern formation in prey-predator systems, population dispersal and invasion processes. Other topics of interest include the study of multiple scales in population dynamics and spatial epidemiology. The models she works with are described by Reaction-Diffusion Equations, Integro-difference Equations or Coupled Map Lattices. 

Prof. Paula Patrício, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Dr. Paula Patrício holds a master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Lisbon. During her Ph.D. in Mathematics, she specialized in infectious disease modeling at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science. Since 2001, she has been teaching at NOVA FCT and conducting research at NOVAMath – Center for Mathematics and Applications. Her work focuses on the interplay between human behavior and disease control, with a particular interest in combining game theory and epidemiology. More recently, she has been exploring spatial epidemiological models. She is currently part of an FCT-funded project on multi-scale control systems applied to human diseases, in collaboration with the Universities of Aveiro and Minho.

Prof. Sergei Petrovskii, University of Leicester, UK

Sergei Petrovskii is a Chair in Applied Mathematics in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester (UK). He is an applied mathematician with over 30 years of research experience in theoretical and mathematical ecology, with a special focus on modelling complex multiscale environmental and ecological systems. His research interests include (but not limited to) the effect of global warming on plankton-oxygen dynamics in the ocean, mass extinctions in Earth’s deep past, biological invasions, and anomalous long transient dynamics in ecologically-inspired dynamical systems. He published five books and 170 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is the “Mathematical Biology” Section Editor of Mathematics (MDPI), an Associate Editor of the Journal of Mathematical Biology (Springer) and an editorial board member of Physics of Life Reviews (Elsevier). 

Prof. Natalia Petrovskaya, University of Birmingham, UK

Dr Natalia Petrovskaya is an applied mathematician and an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics in the University of Birmingham, UK. She has an MSci degree in theoretical physics and applied mathematics and her PhD degree is in applied numerical analysis. Her current research interests concern mathematical modelling and computer simulation of spatial ecological systems. In particular, she is interested in development of non-conventional numerical algorithms for ecological problems where standard numerical methods do not work or are not efficient because of the problem complexity.

Prof. Ganna Rozhnova, University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands

Dr. Ganna Rozhnova is Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modeling at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Her research aims to understand transmission dynamics and interventions for highly relevant emerging and established respiratory and sexually-transmitted viruses that require massive control efforts and have large societal impact. Recent applications include HIV, monkeypox, influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and cytomegalovirus.

Prof. Ana Jacinta Soares, University of Minho, Portugal

Ana Jacinta Soares is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Minho, Portugal, and an Integrated Member of its Centre of Mathematics. Her research interests emcompass kinetic theory of mixtures, analysis of partial differential equations, and mathematical modeling of biological, physical, and ecological systems. She has supervised several M.Sc. and Ph.D. students and maintains active international collaborations with researchers in mathematics, physics, and engineering. Additionally, has a particular interest for industrial mathematics and mathematical knowledge transfer to industry.

Dr. Simon K. Schnyder, University of Tokyo, Japan

Simon K. Schnyder is originally a theoretical physicist. He obtained a PhD from the University of Düsseldorf, went on to perform postdoctoral research at Kyoto University, and is now an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo. These days, he primarily investigates questions in mathematical epidemiology and active matter, studying for instance the self-organisation of behaviour in epidemics or the collective behaviour of cells.

Dr. Vanessa Steindorf, Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Spain

Dr. Vanessa Steindorf holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and has extensive experience in teaching, mathematical modeling, and applied mathematics. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the MTB group at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics in Bilbao, Spain.

Her research focuses on the mathematical modeling of infectious disease transmission, particularly in vector-borne and respiratory diseases. Using ordinary differential equations (ODEs), partial differential equations (PDEs), and integral differential equations (IDEs), she explores disease dynamics to provide insights into potential transmission scenarios and control strategies. Her work integrates theoretical analysis, simulations, and numerical methods to study spatial spread, temporal dynamics, and outbreak preparedness.

By employing functional analysis, nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation analysis, stochastic processes, and biostatistics, Dr. Steindorf bridges theoretical frameworks with real-world data, contributing to informed public health decision-making and improved disease modeling approaches.