Professor Mauro Mobilia
- Position: Professor of Applied Mathematics
- Areas of expertise: non-equilibrium statistical physics; evolutionary dynamics; mathematical biology; complex systems; individual-based models; stochastic processes; evolutionary game theory; opinion dynamics.
- Email: M.Mobilia@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 1591
- Location: 10.09 (Maths Satellite) E C Stoner
- Website: EPSRC-NSF project | Personal website | Googlescholar | Researchgate | ORCID
Profile
I obtained my PhD in Theoretical Physics at 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 of 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 an Advanced Research Fellow at the Mathematics Institute and Centre for Complexity Science of the University of Warwick (2007-2009) on another SNSF fellowship. In June 2008, I accepted a faculty position at the University of Leeds. Since 2009, I am at the School of Mathematics of the University of Leeds where I am a Full Professor of Applied Mathematics (Chair).
- Present: Professor of Applied Mathematics (Chair) at the University of Leeds
- Lecturer then Associate 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 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 are pursued and broadened in the EPSRC-NSF funded international project “Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Fluctuating Populations”
Website of the Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Fluctuating Populations research collaboration: https://eedfp.com/people/
More details and links to all my research papers, as well as some videos, can be found on my research webpage.
Current Postdoctoral Research Associate at Leeds:
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Lluís Hernández-Navarro (since Feb. 2022), supported by the EPSRC grant EP/V014439/1
Available PhD projects include
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Evolution of cooperative resistance in microbial populations subject to fluctuating environments, offered as PhD project notably for School of Maths funding and in the Panorama Doctoral Training Programme Partnership
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Eco-evolutionary Dynamics of Populations in Fluctuating Environments
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Modelling Biodiversity and Pattern Formation with Evolutionary Games
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
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):
- Azhari Hasibuan (from Feb. 2024, LPDP Scholarship)
- Matthew Asker (started in Oct. 2021, EPSRC)
- Xiang Li (Chinese Scholarship Council)
Former PhD students at Leeds (with source(s) of funding):
- Leonardo Miele (2017-2021, NERC)
- Giacomo Baldo (2016-2021, UoL)
- Robert West (2016-2020, EPSRC)
- Fabio Peruzzo (2015-2019, NERC)
- Alexander Murray (2018-2019, NERC)
- Andrew Mellor (2013-2017, EPSRC CASE-KTN + Bloom Agency)
- Maria Nowicka (2012-2018, EPSRC)
- Bartosz Szczesny (2010-2014, EPSRC)
Research groups and institutes
- Applied Mathematics
- Mathematical Biology and Medicine
- Applied Nonlinear Dynamics