Michele Starnini

I am a Ramon y Cajal Fellow and Tenure-track Professor at the Social and Responsible Computing Group of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain). I direct a small research group formed by four PhD students and one postdoctoral researcher.  My research lies at the intersection of statistical physics and network science, with a focus on spreading phenomena, opinion dynamics, and the structure and dynamics of temporal and higher-order networks. I have authored over 50 papers published in journals including PNAS, Physical Review X, Physical Review Letters, and Nature Human Behaviour, with 7500+ citations and an h-index of 32.

Career

• Ramon y Cajal Fellow — Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain), 2024–present
• María Zambrano Fellow — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), 2022–2024
• Researcher — Institute for Scientific Interchange (Turin, Italy), 2018–2022
• J.S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellow & PI — Universitat de Barcelona (Spain), 2015–2018
• PhD Researcher — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), 2011–2015

Education

• PhD in Computational and Applied Physics (Excellent cum laude) — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2014
• MSc in Theoretical Physics (110/110 summa cum laude) — Università di Pisa, 2010
• BSc in Physics (110/110 summa cum laude) — Università di Pisa, 2008

Grants

• Consolidación Investigadora (CNS2023-144156) — Spanish Ministry of Science, 200.000€, 2025–2027
• Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (RYC2022-037932-I) — Spanish Ministry of Science, 400.000€, 2024–2029
• J.S. McDonnell Foundation Fellowship “Studying Complex Systems” — 200.000$, 2015–2018 

Research Interests

• Complex systems
• Network science
• Computational social science
• Spreading phenomena and epidemic models
• Opinion dynamics and social contagion

Teaching

• Introduction to Network Science (Instructor and Coordinator) — Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2024–present
• Numerical Methods (Teaching Assistant) — Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2024
• Laboratory of Physics (Teaching Assistant) — Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2022–2023
• Computational Physics (Teaching Assistant) — Universitat de Barcelona, 2017