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Welcome to my site! Here you can find some of my research interests, teaching activities and materials of the past years, as well as my publications (article links and pre-prints), ongoing projects, conference participation, editorial issues, and collaboration stays. I will try to keep this web-page as up-to-date as possible, although, if you find that something is missing, please refer yourself to my profile on Google Scholar or ResearchGate.
My Affiliations as a Researcher
Since January 2022, I am a Lecturer of the Department of Physics at the King's College, University of Aberdeen (UoA), United Kingdom. My position is based at the Institute of Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology (ICSMB), where previously, I had been an Honorary Research Fellow (2020-2021 and 2015-2017) and did my Ph.D. studies (2011-2014). From 2015 up to 2022 I was an Adjunct Professor (with tenure) from the Department for Theoretical Physics of the Physics Institute in the School of Sciences (IFFC) of the Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Uruguay. I was part of the Non-linear Physics group (NLP webpage), which I am still associated. From June 2020 up to my appointment as a Lecturer, I was a Research Fellow at the Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre (ABIC) of the UoA, where I helped developing novel neuroimaging-informed ways to classify Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment from large-scale brain networks. Prior to my Ph.D. I also worked at the IFFC as an Assistant Researcher from 2007 until 2011, doing Teaching Assistance and helping with research within the NLP group and the Laboratory of Fluid Instabilities.
My Research Interests: Complex Systems
My research is focused on the study of Complex Systems, using my expertise in Network theory, Dynamical Systems, Numerical Modelling, and Data Analysis. Following a bottom-up approach, I aim to explain and predict collective behaviours emerging in complex systems (such as, chaos or generalised synchronisation) from their connectivity. I am also interested in reverse engineering a system's connectivity from measurements of its behaviour, which I do by following a top-down approach; that is, doing network inference. Since complex systems appear in many disciplines, I collaborate in various inter-disciplinary projects dealing with brain networks (including Alzheimer's disease, depression, and ageing), the neurobiological substrate of consciousness (e.g., studying the sleep-wake cycle in mammals), climate change and forecasting at intra-seasonal time-scales, and the stability of inter-connected power-grid systems. Through my research, I seek to develop or apply methodologies to analyse static and time-varying networks (e.g., for community detection or spectral characterisations) and data (i.a., image and signal data mining and network inference), which are particularly useful when analysing real-world complex systems.
I am also interested in Fluid Dynamics, specifically, in turbulence and numerical simulations of Navier-Stokes equations; in the mathematical properties of Non-linear Dynamical Systems, mainly in relation to bifurcation theory; in Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics, with a focus on the statistical properties of semi-conductor Lasers with optical feedback and of neural/biological networks; and finally, in Information Theory and Data Analysis. Some of these topics I will surely be covering in the following years and I will be uploading documents to this site as I progress into these fascinating areas.
Short Biography about My Qualifications
I have a Ph.D. in Physics [2014] from the UoA and a M.Sc. [2010] and B.Sc. [2008] degrees from the UdelaR. My Ph.D. at the ICSMB, UoA, started in October 2011 under the supervision of Dr. Murilo S. Baptista and Prof. Celso Grebogi. My dissertation was entitled "The mathematical principles behind the transmission of Energy and Synchronisation in Complex Networks" and it was conferred with Honours. The thesis also was nominated to the Springer theses award by the UoA as an outstanding thesis, which won and was published as a book (ISBN 978-3-319-22216-5). Its outcomes are framed within Complexity Science, involving exact and approximate results for the behaviour and stability of complex systems, which are valid for a wide range of complex systems but particularly suitable for the modern power-grid models. Before my Ph.D., I graduated from the B.Sc. in July 2008 and got my M.Sc. degree on "Synchronisation of coupled electronic oscillators" in July 2010 under the supervision of Prof. Arturo C. Martí and Dr. Cecilia Cabeza. The thesis considered the case of an electronic oscillator model, implemented experimentally under a dual RC circuit, which could interact by means of light pulses as a firefly. We also studied the system analytically and numerically obtaining some general conclusions for the synchronisation of generic piecewise oscillators.