Professor Mauro Mobilia

Profile

I obtained my PhD in Theoretical Physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) in 2002 for a thesis on non-equilibrium statistical physics. From 2002 to 2005, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University and Virginia Tech on a research fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). In 2005, I was awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship that I held at the University of Munich (LMU) until 2007. I then worked as a research fellow at the Mathematics Institute and Centre for Complexity Science of the University of Warwick (2007-2009) on an Advanced SNSF Fellowship. In June 2008, I accepted a faculty position at the University of Leeds. Since 2009, I have been at the School of Mathematics of the University of Leeds where I am a full professor (chair) of applied mathematics.

• Present: Professor of Applied Mathematics (Chair) at the University of Leeds
• Since 2009: Lecturer, Associate Professor, and Full Professor in the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds
• SNSF Advanced Research Fellowship held at University of Warwick (2007-2009)
• Humboldt Research Fellowship held at the University of Munich (LMU), Germany (2005-2007)
• SNSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship held at Boston University and Virginia Tech, USA (2002-2005)
• PhD (2002) and MSc (1998) from Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

For more details: see my 2-page CV

I am the coordinator of the School of Maths’ Undergraduate Summer Bursary Scheme.

Responsibilities

• Summer Bursary Scheme Coordinator (since 2013)
• Organiser of the Maths-Bio-Medicine Seminar Series (2009-18)
• Coordinator of the Applied Maths Postgraduate Seminar (2010-19)

Research interests

My current research is chiefly concerned with multidisciplinary applications of non-equilibrium statistical physics to problems of evolutionary dynamics and to complex systems in the life and behavioural sciences. Some important challenges in these areas concern the emergence of cooperative behaviour, the maintenance of biodiversity, the dynamics of cultural changes, and the self-organisation of mobile populations. In my research, mathematical modelling is usually at the individual-based level and leads to stochastic many-body problems. These are tackled by a combination of methods drawn from statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics and evolutionary game theory.

Examples of research outcomes include a series of works on 'rock-paper-scissors' games studying the self-organisation and biodiversity in cyclically competing populations, papers on the effects of 'zealots' in models of opinion dynamics, and works on metastability as well as the joint effects of demographic and environmental fluctuations. Recent research highlights concern the modelling of fluctuating populations subject to the coupling of demographic noise and environmental variability, inspired by the eco-evolutionary dynamics of microbial communities. These lines of investigation have been pursued and broadened in the EPSRC-NSF funded international project “Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Fluctuating Populations”, notably with applications to antimicrobial resistance as a cooperative behaviour and under the time variation of toxins and nutrients.

Website of the Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Fluctuating Populations research collaboration: https://eedfp.com/people/

In July 2024, we organised the L24EEDs workshop “Mathematical modelling of microbial communities: cooperation, dynamics, and resistance”

More details and links to all my research papers, as well as some videos, can be found on my research webpage.

Recent Postdoctoral Research Associate at Leeds:

• Lluís Hernández-Navarro (2022-2025), supported by the EPSRC grant EP/V014439/1

Recently proposed PhD projects include

• Opinion dynamics of rational agents (with Prof. Richard Mann, main supervsior)

• Evolution of cooperative resistance in microbial populations subject to fluctuating environments,

• Eco-evolutionary Dynamics of Populations in Fluctuating Environments

• Modelling Biodiversity and Pattern Formation with Evolutionary Games

• Social Dynamics and Emergence of Collective Behaviour

• Evolutionary game theory of scarce resources (with Dr. Mike Evans, main supervisor)

• DMS-EPSRC Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Fluctuating Populations

Qualifications

• PhD (Dr. Sc. EPF)
• MSc (Dipl. Phys. EPF)
• FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy)

Professional memberships

• Member of the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) College
• Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Member of the American Physical Society
• Member of the European Physical Society
• Member of the International Complex Systems Society
• Member of the Humboldt Foundation's Network of Fellows
• Member of the Society for Mathematical Biology
• Member of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Peer Review College
• Member of the Royal Society’s Newton International Fellowships Committee

Student education

Teaching web page

Some subjects I teach at Leeds:

• Evolutionary Modelling
• Advanced Evolutionary Modelling
• Mathematical Biology
• Advanced Mathematical Biology

Current PhD students at Leeds (with source of funding):

• Gabriel Howes (from Oct. 2025, UoL scholarship)
• Shaurya Pratap Singh (2024-present, NERC scholarship)
• Matthew Asker (2021-present, EPSRC scholarship)

Former PhD students at Leeds (with source of funding):

• Azhari Hasibuan (2024, Indonesian LPDP scholarship)
• Xiang Li (2018-2024, China CSC scholarship)
• Leonardo Miele (2017-2021, NERC scholarship)
• Giacomo Baldo (2016-2021, UoL scholarship)
• Robert West (2016-2020, EPSRC scholarship)
• Fabio Peruzzo (2015-2019, NERC scholarship)
• Alexander Murray (2018-2019, NERC scholarship)
• Andrew Mellor (2013-2017, EPSRC CASE-KTN + Bloom Agency)
• Maria Nowicka (2012-2018, EPSRC scholarship)
• Bartosz Szczesny (2010-2014, EPSRC scholarship)

Research groups and institutes

• Applied Mathematics
• Mathematical Biology and Medicine
• Applied Nonlinear Dynamics

Current postgraduate researchers

• Matthew Asker
• Shaurya

Projects

<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/198-eco-evolutionary-dynamics-of-populations-in-fluctuating-environments">Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Populations in Fluctuating Environments</a></li> <li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1311-evolutionary-game-theory-of-scarce-resources">Evolutionary game theory of scarce resources</a></li> <li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/199-modelling-biodiversity-and-pattern-formation-with-evolutionary-games">Modelling Biodiversity and Pattern Formation with Evolutionary Games</a></li> <li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/200-social-dynamics-and-emergence-of-collective-behaviour">Social Dynamics and Emergence of Collective Behaviour</a></li>