Lucas Lacasa

ABOUT ME

I'm a Physicist/Applied Mathematician interested in developing methods for the analysis of Complex Systems. My current topics of interest include Networks, Dynamics, and their interfaces. I use tools from Dynamical Systems Theory, Time Series Analysis, Network Theory, Statistical Physics and Machine Learning to analyse the onset of Complexity and Criticality emerging in physical, socio-technical and biological systems, as well as to develop innovative methods for Data Analysis, a topic for which I was awarded an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship and was the recipient of the 2019 International Prize in Formal Sciences, awarded by USERN. Besides my theoretical work, applications of current interest include real-world modelling of complex, socio-technical systems.

I graduated (BSc+MSc) in Theoretical Physics from Complutense University in 2004 got my PhD in Physics of Complex Systems from Technical University of Madrid in 2009. I am currently a Research Associate Professor (with tenure) at IFISC, a Physics Institute of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Before that I lived for 8 years in London (2013-2021), where I was Reader in Applied Mathematics at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London. Even before that, I was Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics at the School of Aeronautics, Technical University of Madrid (2010-2013). I have also been an Associate Research Fellow at Kings College London and held visiting positions at other institutions including CBPF (Brazil), Oxford (Physics department, 2012) or UCLA (Mathematics, 2017).

I have published about 80 peer-reviewed publications, including papers in multidisciplinary venues such as PNAS or Nature Communications, Physical journals such as Physical Review X or Physical Review Letters, Mathematical journals such as Nonlinearity, or Computer Science journals such as IEEE TPAMI. My work has received over 5500 citations and has been highlighted in over 200 feature articles in the media.