Mathematician | Researcher in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Ecology
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Dr. William Campillay-Llanos is a mathematician and researcher with a strong background in mathematical modeling and theoretical ecology, focusing on the application of mathematics to biological and environmental systems. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the Universidad Católica de Temuco (UCT) and collaborates with the Research and Technological Transfer Center for Irrigation and Agroclimatology (CITRA) at the University of Talca. In 2024, he joined as Principal Investigator of the Núcleo de Investigación en Producción Alimentaria (NIPA) at UCT (https://nucleo-nipa.uct.cl/investigadores/). In 2025, he has been invited to visit the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) in Brazil to strengthen his expertise in mathematical modeling applied to climatology.
In 2024, he published 10 scientific papers, including 2 in high-impact journals (WOS Q1), 6 in journals indexed in Scopus, and 2 related to the teaching of theoretical ecology and climate data modeling. Additionally, he currently has three manuscripts under review in WOS Q1 journals and serves as a reviewer for the journal Agricultural Water Management.
Dr. Campillay-Llanos earned his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematical Modeling from the Universidad Católica del Maule (2021), where he developed innovative mathematical models to understand the structure of ecological communities, with a particular emphasis on predator–prey dynamics and the effects of body size on ecosystem stability. His doctoral research contributed to the fields of ecology, evolution, and natural resource management, leading to two WOS-indexed publications as first author.
His interdisciplinary research integrates mathematics, ecology, and agricultural sciences, contributing to topics such as photosynthesis modeling, transpiration processes, stomatal conductance, crop water relations, and sweet cherry phenology. He collaborates with researchers from the Agricultural Research Institute (INIA, Chile) and with specialists in agroclimatology on projects related to fruit tree phenology and climate–crop interactions using mathematical models.
Dr. Campillay-Llanos has also made contributions to Pure Mathematics, particularly in Proportional (Multiplicative) Calculus, and has conducted research in Differential Galois Theory at the Institute of Mathematics of Toulouse (France). His work in this field has been published in both mathematical research journals and mathematics education journals. In addition, he collaborated with French mathematician Michel Carral in the translation of the book Géométrie from French into Spanish.
His academic background includes a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Talca (2009) and a degree in Educational Statistics from the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación (2007), where he graduated as the Best Student of the Faculty of Sciences with Highest Distinction, supported by the Juan Gómez Millas Scholarship from the Ministry of Education of Chile.
To highlight the competencies and skills developed throughout Dr. William Campillay-Llanos’s scientific career, his research contributions can be grouped into three main areas: Phenology, Plant Diseases, and Climate Change; Theoretical Ecology; and Mathematics.
Phenology, Plant Diseases, and Climate Change
Dr. Campillay-Llanos has collaborated with researchers from CITRA and other institutions to characterize phenological stages in fruit crops, analyze the dynamics of plant diseases, and evaluate the impacts of climate variability using biomathematical models and climate data analysis. Representative publications include: (a) Development and validation of phenological models for eight varieties of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) growing under Mediterranean climate condition (Scientia Horticulturae); (b) Phenological Analysis through Biomathematical Models of Three Varieties of Pear (Pyrus communis L.) in Mediterranean Climate Conditions (Ecological Modelling); (c) Modeling the Effects of Extreme Temperatures on the Infection Rate of Botrytis cinerea Using Historical Climate Data (1951–2023) of Central Chile (Agronomy); (d) Historical trends and future scenario projection of maximum summer temperatures in the southern hemisphere: central-southern zone of Chile (IDESIA); (e) contributions to plant pathology studies such as the occurrence of Neofusicoccum parvum in hazelnut orchards (Plant Disease) and fungal trunk pathogens in walnut pruning wounds (Microorganisms); and (f) digital and biomathematical approaches presented in IEEE conferences, including advances in plant electrophysiology and digital models for disease dynamics.
Theoretical Ecology
In theoretical ecology, Dr. Campillay-Llanos integrates concepts from metabolic theory, demographic theory, and coexistence theory to study the role of body size, energy flow, and trophic interactions in ecological communities. His work develops biomathematical models to analyze predator–prey dynamics, biological control, and trophic cascades. Key publications include: (a) Body size modulates apex predators and native and invasive prey demographic patterns: a biomathematical approach (Ecología Austral); (b) Coexistence, energy and trophic cascade in a three-level food chain that integrates body sizes (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution); (c) Fish catch management strategies: evaluating the interplay between body size and global warming (Natural Resource Modeling); and (d) the recent study Spaces and surfaces of body sizes of species determining the success of biological control in a three-level food chain, in Scientific Reports.
Mathematics
In the field of mathematics, Dr. Campillay-Llanos has contributed to the development of proportional (multiplicative) calculus and its applications to dynamical systems and growth models. His work explores alternative formulations of differential and integral calculus and their potential applications in science and engineering. A representative publication is Differential and integral proportional calculus: how to find a primitive for Gaussian function (International Journal of Mathematics Education in Science and Technology), together with earlier work on proportional logistic models published in Proyecciones (Journal de Matemática) and related presentations at international conferences.