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Professor Andrea Baronchelli

Professor of Complexity Science

School of Science & Technology Department of Mathematics

Contact details

Address

Professor Andrea Baronchelli E226 , Drysdale Building [E]
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

Personal links

About

Overview

Andrea Baronchelli is Professor of Complexity Science at City University of London, Token Economy theme lead at The Alan Turing Institute, and a research associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies.

In the video below Andrea discusses his research on the physics of socio-technical systems:
Shaping the world through research with Dr Andrea Baronchelli

Andrea investigates the dynamics of decentralised socio-technical systems using concepts and tools from the physics of complex systems, network science and data science. Topics he researches include the emergence and dynamics of social norms and shared category systems, tipping points in collective behaviour, polarisation in social networks, blockchain & crypto ecosystems, and human mobility. His work has has been supported by public and private institutions (UKRI, ESRC, InnovateUK, UK Govt., PayPal, etc). In 2019, he received the Young Scientist Award for Socio and Econophysics from the German Physical Society.

Besides academia, Andrea regularly helps start-ups and companies in the blockchain/crypto space improve their products by assessing, and anticipating, the behaviour of the communities they aim to reach.

For more info please see Dr. Baronchelli's PERSONAL HOMEPAGE: https://www.andreabaronchelli.com/

Research

For more info please see Dr. Baronchelli's PERSONAL HOMEPAGE: https://sites.google.com/site/andreabaronchelli/

Andrea pursues an interdisciplinary research agenda centred on the modeling of social and biological systems, with particular regard to issues in linguistics, cognitive science and evolutionary dynamics. At a more fundamental level, Andrea's research focuses on complex networks and on the way they affect the dynamical processes taking place upon them. He uses concepts and tools coming from Complex Systems, Network Science and Data Science.

Andrea has published 60+ peer-reviewed papers, and has presented his work in 30+ invited talks at International Conferences, Universities and Institutions.

Publications

Featured publications

  1. Falkenberg, M., Galeazzi, A., Torricelli, M., Di Marco, N., Larosa, F., Sas, M. … Baronchelli, A. (2022). Growing polarization around climate change on social media. Nature Climate Change, 12(12), pp. 1114–1121. doi:10.1038/s41558-022-01527-x.

    [publisher’s website]

  2. Bracci, A., Boehnke, J., ElBahrawy, A., Perra, N., Teytelboym, A. and Baronchelli, A. (2022). Macroscopic properties of buyer–seller networks in online marketplaces. PNAS Nexus, 1(4). doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac201.

    [publisher’s website]

  3. Baronchelli, A., Halaburda, H. and Teytelboym, A. (2022). Central bank digital currencies risk becoming a digital Leviathan. Nature Human Behaviour, 6(7), pp. 907–909. doi:10.1038/s41562-022-01404-9.

    [publisher’s website]

  4. Nadini, M., Alessandretti, L., Di Giacinto, F., Martino, M., Aiello, L.M. and Baronchelli, A. (2021). Mapping the NFT revolution: market trends, trade networks, and visual features. Scientific Reports, 11(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00053-8.
  5. Guilbeault, D., Baronchelli, A. and Centola, D. (2021). Experimental evidence for scale-induced category convergence across populations. Nature Communications, 12(1). doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20037-y.

    [publisher’s website]

  6. Lucchini, L., Alessandretti, L., Lepri, B., Gallo, A. and Baronchelli, A. (2020). From code to market: Network of developers and correlated returns of cryptocurrencies. Science Advances, 6(51). doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd2204.

    [publisher’s website]

  7. ElBahrawy, A., Alessandretti, L., Rusnac, L., Goldsmith, D., Teytelboym, A. and Baronchelli, A. (2020). Collective dynamics of dark web marketplaces. Scientific Reports, 10(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-020-74416-y.

    [publisher’s website]

  8. Amato, R., Lacasa, L., Diaz-Guilera, A. and Baronchelli, A. (2018). The dynamics of norm change in the cultural evolution of language. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 115(33), pp. 8260–8265. doi:10.1073/pnas.1721059115.
  9. Alessandretti, L., Sapiezynski, P., Sekara, V., Lehmann, S. and Baronchelli, A. (2018). Evidence for a conserved quantity in human mobility. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(7), pp. 485–491. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0364-x.

    [publisher’s website]

  10. Centola, D., Becker, J., Brackbill, D. and Baronchelli, A. (2018). Experimental evidence for tipping points in social convention. Science, 360(6393), pp. 1116–1119. doi:10.1126/science.aas8827.

    [publisher’s website]

  11. Centola, D. and Baronchelli, A. (2015). The spontaneous emergence of conventions: An experimental study of cultural evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(7), pp. 1989–1994. doi:10.1073/pnas.1418838112.

    [publisher’s website]

  12. Baronchelli, A., Ferrer-i-Cancho, R., Pastor-Satorras, R., Chater, N. and Christiansen, M.H. (2013). Networks in Cognitive Science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17, pp. 348–360.

    [publisher’s website]

  13. Starnini, M., Baronchelli, A. and Pastor-Satorras, R. (2013). Modeling human dynamics of face-to-face interaction networks. Physical Review Letters, 110(16).
  14. Perra, N., Baronchelli, A., Mocanu, D., Gonçalves, B., Pastor-Satorras, R. and Vespignani, A. (2012). Random walks and search in time-varying networks. Physical Review Letters, 109(23).
  15. Baronchelli, A., Gong, T., Puglisi, A. and Loreto, V. (2010). Modeling the emergence of universality in color naming patterns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(6), pp. 2403–2407.
  16. Puglisi, A., Baronchelli, A. and Loreto, V. (2008). Cultural route to the emergence of linguistic categories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(23), pp. 7936–7940.
  17. Baronchelli, A., Felici, M., Loreto, V., Caglioti, E. and Steels, L. (2006). Sharp transition towards shared vocabularies in multi-agent systems. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, (6).

Publications by category

Chapters (10)

  • Alessandretti, L., Baronchelli, A. and He, Y.-.H. (2023). Machine Learning Meets Number Theory: The Data Science of Birch–Swinnerton-Dyer. Machine Learning in Pure Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (pp. 1–39). WORLD SCIENTIFIC (EUROPE). ISBN 978-1-80061-369-0.
  • Moretti, P., Baronchelli, A., Starnini, M. and Pastor-Satorras, R. (2013). Generalized voter-like models on heterogeneous networks. In Ganguly, N. (Ed.), Dynamics On and Of Complex Networks Springer Science & Business. ISBN 978-1-4614-6729-8.
  • Dediu, D., Cysouw, M., Levinson, S.C., Baronchelli, A., Christiansen, M.H., Croft, W. … Lieven, E. (2013). Cultural Evolution of Language. CULTURAL EVOLUTION: SOCIETY, TECHNOLOGY, LANGUAGE, AND RELIGION (pp. 303–332). ISBN 978-0-262-31828-0.
  • Baronchelli, A., Gong, T., Puglisi, A. and Loreto, V. (2010). On the origin of universal categorization patterns: an in-silica experiment. In Smith, A.D.M. (Ed.), The Evolution of Language (pp. 365–366). World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-4295-22-2.
  • Baronchelli, A., Puglisi, A. and Loreto, V. (2010). Complex systems approach to natural categorization. In Smith, A.D.M. (Ed.), The Evolution of Language World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-4295-22-2.
  • Mukherjee, A., Baronchelli, A., Loreto, V., Puglisi, A. and Tria, F. (2010). Aging in the Emergence of Linguistic Categories. In Fellermann, H., Dörr, M., Hanczyc, M.M., Laursen, L.L., Maurer, S.E., Merkle, D. … Rasmussen, S. (Eds.), Artificial Life XII: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, Odense, Denmark, August 19-23, 2010 (pp. 589–590). MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-29075-3.
  • Baronchelli, A., Cattuto, C., Loreto, V. and Puglisi, A. (2009). Complex systems approach to the emergence of language. In Minett, J.W. and Wang, W.S.-.Y. (Eds.), Language, Evolution, and the Brain City University of HK Press. ISBN 978-962-937-165-4.
  • Jäger, H., Steels, L., Baronchelli, A., Briscoe, E., Christiansen, M.H., Griffiths, T. … Triesch, J. (2009). What can mathematical, computational and robotic models tell us about the origins of syntax? In Bickerton, D. and Szathmáry, E. (Eds.), Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax (pp. 385–410). MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01356-7.
  • Loreto, V., Baronchelli, A. and Puglisi, A. (2009). Mathematical modeling of language games. In Nolfi, S. and Mirolli, M. (Eds.), Evolution of Communication and Language in Embodied Agents Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-01250-1.
  • Baronchelli, A., Dall'Asta, L., Barrat, A. and Loreto, V. (2006). Strategies for fast convergence in semiotic dynamic. In Rocha, L.M. (Ed.), Artificial life X (pp. 480–485). The MIT Press.

Conference papers and proceedings (5)

Journal articles (84)

Thesis/dissertation

  • Baronchelli, A. Statistical mechanics approach to language games. (PhD Thesis)