Our invited speakers bring together expertise from across different fields of complex systems science — from human mobility and urban dynamics to network theory and linguistics — providing insights into how complexity emerges in nature and society.
Stay tuned for updates about our last speaker!

Rafael Prieto-Curiel

Rafael Prieto-Curiel is a Faculty Member at the Complexity Science Hub, where he works on topics including violence, mobility, migration, and urban dynamics. He works for the OECD and the World Bank, conducting spatial and demographic analyses of cities. He is the Scientific Advisor of Aleph. In 2024, he was awarded the “Science Breakthrough” award by the Falling Walls Foundation.
Previously, he was at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford, working on urban dynamics as part of the Peak Urban project. He earned an MSc in Statistics and a PhD in Mathematics and Security and Crime at UCL. He also worked in the Emergency Attention Centre in Mexico City (C5) as Director of Strategic Analysis, where his work primarily consisted of crime forecasting and police and resource allocation.

Carmen Cabrera-Arnau

Carmen Cabrera is a Lecturer in Geographic Data Science (Assistant Professor) at the Geographic Data Science Lab, within the University of Liverpool’s Department of Geography and Planning. Her areas of expertise are geographic data science, human mobility, network analysis and mathematical modelling. Carmen’s research focuses on developing quantitative frameworks to model and predict human mobility patterns across spatiotemporal scales and population groups, ranging from intraurban commutes to migratory movements. She is particularly interested in establishing methodologies to facilitate the efficient and reliable use of new forms of digital trace data in the study of human movement.
Prior to her position as a Lecturer, Carmen completed a BSc in Physics, followed by an MSc in Complex Systems, specialising in Network Analysis. She then did a PhD in Applied Mathematics at University College London (UCL), focusing on the development of mathematical models of social behaviours in urban areas, against the theoretical backdrop of agglomeration economies. After graduating from her PhD in 2021, she was a Research Fellow in Urban Mobility at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), at UCL, where she currently holds a honorary position

Luis F Seoane

Luis F Seoane is a researcher in Complex Systems—working in that field in a very general sense. He has contributed studies to computational neuroscience, evolutionary dynamics, network theory, econophysics, or linguistics—among others. Very often, these studies tackle how a system’s complexity is changed as the system varies in size, number of components, number of parts, etc; and vice-versa: how a system’s complexity might affect its growth and constituting units. Since July 2025, he works at the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE, UPF-CSIC) in Barcelona, where he heads the BIT Lab. Earlier, he completed postdocs at MIT, IBE, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC) in Palma de Mallorca, and the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology (CNB, CSIC) where he first launched the BIT Lab in 2023.