fedeHi, I am Federico Vázquez, a CONICET researcher working at the Institute of Calculus (IC), University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  My area of research interest is Statistical Physics and, in particular, its novel applications to social and biological systems.  I like to propose and study simple models of interacting particles to study diverse phenomena, such as opinion formation, cultural propagation, language evolution, epidemic spreading, species coexistence, etc.  Simple microscopic rules typically lead to a nontrivial stochastic dynamics, which can be analyzed  using different techniques borrowed from non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics, including the theory of phase transitions, first-passage processes, master and Langevin equations, etc.

Special Issue “Statistical Physics of Opinion formation and Social Phenomena”

Statistical Physics of Social Dynamics:

Is the behavior of a large group of individuals determined by the people’s idiosyncrasy or is it rather governed by a universal law? Are there hidden laws for the collective dynamics of social systems?  Statistical Physics provides the ideal framework to tackle these questions, as it was originally developed to explore the emergent properties of a large number of interacting particles or individuals.

  • Opinion formation and decision-making.         

  • Language competition.

  • Propagation of cultural attributes.

  • Spreading of rumors and diseases.

Public Opinion Polarization (in spanish):

– NexCiencia (UBA)

– Radio Interview

– Newspaper

Professional background:  I received a bachelor´s degree (Licenciatura) in Physics from the University of Mar del Plata (Argentina) in 2000, and a PhD in Physics from  the Boston University Physics Department (Boston, USA) in 2006.  After that, I worked at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC, Mallorca, Spain) as a postdoctoral fellow, and then moved to the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS, Dresden, Germany), where I was a guest scientist in the Biological Physics division.  Since September 2012, I am a tenured CONICET researcher.  I worked at IFLYSIB in La Plata until March 2018, and I am now at the IC – UBA.

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PhD vacancies:
CONICET (Argentina) offers fellowships for Latinamerican students. Click here for more information or write to fede.vazmin at gmail dot com.
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