Profile
Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the Center for Science of Science & Innovation. Researcher, data scientist, and developer with expertise in dynamic complex networks, agentic AI for scientific discovery, machine learning, science of science, computational social science, and interactive visualization. Creator of Helios Web and author of 60+ publications, with 2,600+ citations and an h-index of 23 on Google Scholar. Ph.D. in Computational Physics with a strong interdisciplinary focus bridging physics, computer science, biology, and the social sciences.
Appointments
- Research Assistant Professor, Center for Science of Science & Innovation, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2025–present
- Associate Research Scientist, Observatory on Social Media, Indiana University, 2023–2025
- Assistant Research Scientist, Indiana University Network Science Institute, 2019–2023
- Postdoctoral Fellow, São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, 2015–2019
- Visiting Research Scholar, Indiana University Bloomington, 2017–2018
Education
- Ph.D. in Physics, Computational Physics, São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, 2015
- M.Sc. in Physics, Computational Physics, São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, 2009
- B.Sc. in Physics, Computational Physics, São Carlos Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, 2006
University of São Paulo is ranked #1 in Latin America in the Times Higher Education Latin America University Rankings 2026.
Dissertation received a university-level Honorable Mention, ranking among the top three theses in the exact sciences.
Current research
- Agentic AI for scientific and engineering discovery: Integrating structured evidence, networks, embeddings, and expert judgment.
- Technology capability maps: Using embedding models to map design choices and technology trajectories, and predict capabilities across materials and device platforms.
- Graph and language models of scientific impact: Comparing random-walk embeddings, transformer representations, and graph-retrieval methods to model scientific impact, research similarity, and scholarly trajectories.
- Mapping how science is funded: Linking funding acknowledgments to organizations and publications to study how different forms of support shape research directions.
- Helios Web: Browser-native visualization and exploration of large networks and embedding spaces. GitHub
Browse the full project portfolio.
Grant writing and funded projects
- APTO: Global Observatory and Virtual Laboratory for Science and Technology, National Science Foundation, Senior Personnel, 2024–2026. Contributed goals, methodology, data integration, and analytical strategy during proposal development for the $7.5M funded program.
- Integrative Study of Local Microbiome Function in Chronic Rhinosinusitis, National Institutes of Health, Senior Personnel, 2024–2027. Contributed network-methods conceptualization and writing during development of the funded proposal.
- UPSCALE: Universal Population Segmentation and Characterization Algorithms for Online Environments, DARPA, Researcher, 2023–2024. Participated in the funded program and developed computational and network methods for large-scale online environments.
- A National Network for Critical Technology Assessment: A First-Year Pilot, National Science Foundation, Senior Personnel, 2022–2023. Participated in the funded pilot and contributed technology-assessment and science-of-science methods.
- Science Genome: A Scholarly Graph Embedding Framework, U.S. Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative, Researcher, 2020–2024. Participated in the funded program and developed network and embedding representations of science.
Research areas
Network science; science of science; complex systems; agentic AI for scientific discovery; artificial intelligence and machine learning; computational social science; scientific and engineering discovery; graph and text embeddings; interactive visualization; community detection; information science; biological, climate, political, and urban networks.
Selected teaching and mentorship
- Instructor, INFO-I 590: Data Visualization, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University, Spring 2025; in person. A project-based course connecting visual perception and design to exploratory analysis, multidimensional data, maps, text and embeddings, networks, interaction, and web deployment using Python and JavaScript. Course site · Materials
- Instructor, INFO-I 513: Usable Artificial Intelligence, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Indiana University, Spring 2025; online. An applied introduction to data preparation, regression, classification, clustering, evaluation, feature selection, explainability, natural-language processing, embeddings, and responsible use of large language models in practical Python workflows. Course site · Materials
- Guest lecturer on complex-network visualization at the University of São Paulo.
- Graduate and undergraduate research supervision in network visualization, embedding analysis, large-language-model interfaces, and scientific software.
- Google Summer of Code mentor for Helios/FURY projects under the Python Software Foundation, 2021–2023.
Selected service
- Academic editor for PLOS ONE and PeerJ.
- Reviewer for journals and conferences spanning network science, information science, complex systems, computational social science, and physics.
- Organizer of tutorials and workshops for IC2S2, ISSI/CADRE, and the Indiana University Network Science Institute.
- Contributor to open research infrastructure including Helios Web, OSoMe tools, brainlife.io network apps, Scholarometer, and FURY.
Technical skills
Python, JavaScript, C/C++, Objective-C, WebGPU, WebGL, OpenGL, WebAssembly, parallel processing, large-scale data pipelines, network analysis, community detection, scientific visualization, natural-language processing, machine learning, graph and text embeddings, PyTorch, TensorFlow, transformer models, and LLM APIs.
Languages
Portuguese (native); English (fluent).
Profiles
Website · GitHub · Google Scholar · ORCID · OpenAlex