I am a Professor of Ecology and Evolution and Associate Faculty in Sociology. I am also the Inaugural Director of the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.
My research investigates fundamental processes of biological and social organization and evolution in complex systems, with an emphasis on urban environments.
I create multidisciplinary theory and methods to deal with integrated concepts in these complex systems, often based on network structures and processes of learning and adaptation. My research seeks to explore new data and contexts that allow for quantitative comparisons among population through time and space in order to produce new insights and theory.
My work has contributed significantly to a new sense of excitement and possibility about urban science, unifying urban themes over space and time, and the convergence of ideas and methods for new insights across complex systems more generally.
I teach "Introduction to Urban Sciences" (ENST 24600) and "The Mathematics of Evolution" (BIOS 13141 1) at the University of Chicago.
Luis Bettencourt, PhD
- Professor of Ecology and Evolution
- Research and Scholarly Interests: Cities, Complex Systems, Epidemiology, Evolutionary Dynamics, Learning, Networks, Social Processes and Institutions, Statistical Theory
- Websites: Mansueto Institute, Santa Fe Institute, Research Network Profile
- Contact: bettencourt@uchicago.edu
- Graduate Program: Ecology & Evolution