My main research interests are agent-based modeling, simulation of social complexity, computational social choice, distributed systems and applied artificial intelligence.
My current interests include: agent-based modeling, simulating social complexity, land use, dynamic networks, social and cultural anthropology, HIV transmission dynamics, socio-political conflicts and social movements
BIGSSS-Departs PhD Fellow
Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences / Jacobs University (Germany)
PhD project: Residential Segregation and Intergenerational Immigrant Integration: A Schelling-Esser Model
Italian PhD fellow, fond of social complexity and agent-based modeling, applied to residential segregation and integration processes
Research Interests: Agent-based modeling, migrant integration, residential segregation
I am an anthropological archaeologist with broad interests in hunter-gatherers, lithic technology, human evolution, and complex systems theory. I am particularly interested in understanding processes of long term social, evolutionary, and adaptational change among hunter-gatherers, specifically by using approaches that combine archaeological data, ethnographic data, and computational modeling.
My field of interests concerns two axes:
First, epistemology of computational modeling and simulation of complex systems. I am particularly interested in a sociological inquiry about social implication of knowledge derived from complex systems’ study.
Second, assessing the possibilities and limits of studying social complexity with complex systems tools, particularly, agent-based modeling and simulation.
I am a lowly civil servant moonlighting as a PhD student interested in urban informatics, Smart Cities, artificial intelligence/machine learning, all-things geospatial and temporal, advanced technologies, agent-based modeling, and social complexity… and enthusiastically trying to find a combination thereof to form a disseration. Oh… and I would like to win the lottery.
I have a BS in Earth Sciences and a PhD in Resource and Environmental Economics. I have more than 25 years of experience doing research and teaching and advising students in systems thinking, scenario development, simulation, and ecological economics. Presently, I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Computational & Data Sciences at George Mason University, and a member of the Center for Social Complexity. I teach the introductory courses on Computational Social Sciences at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as beginning and advanced courses in complex systems, modeling, and simulation. My current research focuses on the use of scenario development and integrated modeling as applied to social-ecological systems. My recent work has focused on applying these to issues related to climate change economics and policy, including new technologies for greenhouse gas removal and solar radiation management.
I studied Molecular Biology and Genetics at Istanbul Technical University. During my undergraduate studies I became interested in the field of Ecology and Evolution and did internships on animal behaviour in Switzerland and Ireland. I then went on to pursue a 2-year research Master’s in Evolutionary Biology (MEME) funded by the European Union. I worked on projects using computer simulations to investigate evolution of social complexity and human cooperation. I also did behavioural economics experiments on how children learn social norms by copying others. After my Master’s, I pursued my dream of doing fieldwork and investigating human societies. I did my PhD at UCL, researching cultural evolution and behavioural adaptations in Pygmy hunter-gatherers in the Congo. During my PhD, I was part of an inter-disciplinary Hunter-Gatherer Resilience team funded by the Leverhulme Trust. I obtained a postdoctoral research fellowship from British Academy after my PhD. I am currently working as a British Academy research fellow and lecturer in Evolutionary Anthropology and Evolutionary Medicine at UCL.