I am a Postdoctoral Associate in the Ecology, Evolution and Behavior department at the University of Minnesota. My research involves using agent-based models combined with lab and field research to test a broad range of hypotheses in biology. I am currently developing an agent-based model of animal cell systems to investigate the epigenetic mechanisms that influence cell behavior. For my PhD work, I created a model, B3GET, which simulates the evolution of virtual primates to better understand the relationships between growth and development, life history and reproductive strategies, mating strategies, foraging strategies, and how ecological factors drive these relationships. I have also conducted fieldwork to inform the modeled behavior of these virtual organisms. Here I am pictured with an adult male gelada in Ethiopia!

I develop simulation tools for generating what-if scenarios for decision making. I predominantly use Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) technique as most of my simulations model complex systems. In some cases, I have extended existing tools with modifications to model the given system. Although the tools are meant for research purposes, I have followed industry friendly delivery mechanisms, such as unit-tests, automated builds and delivery on cloud platforms.

Cristina Montañola Sales is an assistant professor at Institut Químic de Sarrià in Ramon Llull University, where she teaches subjects in ICT and statistics. She holds a PhD in Statistics and Operations Research and specializes in the investigation of novel quantitative methods for studying human behavior, such as agent-based models and spatio-temporal analysis. Her interdisciplinary research combines mathematics with social sciences, biomedicine and High-Performance Computing. She has studied various contexts, such as the dynamics of mobility of Gambian emigrants, demographic forecasting in South Korea, and ecological resilience of hunter-gatherers in India. Her research on tuberculosis transmissions and COVID-19 has advanced knowledge in epidemics, demographic dynamics and computational statistics. She has published articles and participated in international projects on simulation, parallel computing and global health.

I’m a Research Associate in Computational Social Science at Durham University working on a project that intends to produce more realistic artificial social networks (RASN) for simulation by creating a taxonomy of existing generator papers, accessible as an interactive, open-access database, in addition to exploring the interdependencies of social network’s structural properties. I obtained my PhD from University of Glasgow in (2023) where I was working on modelling national identity polarisation on social media platforms using ABMs.