Research Interests

My research has always been concerned with the modelling and simulation of real systems in physics and biology. In particular, I have been studying many bodies and nonlinear systems using the methods of statistical mechanics. Some of the keywords of my past and actual research interest are: Stochastic Processes, Dynamical Systems, Mathematical or Theoretical Biology and Complex Systems. In my research I use many theoretical and simulation tools, like Classical and Stochastic PDE's, Finite Elements, Neural Networks, Monte Carlo Simulations, Molecular Dynamic Simulations and Parallel Computing.

My current research interest:

After I finished my PhD in Physics in ?98 I became particularly interested in the application of the mathematical methods used in physics to other fields, such as biology and population dynamics.

Population Dynamics:

Relating the interactions of individuals ---described in terms of competition, predation, interference etc.--- to the dynamics of the populations of these individuals in terms of the change in numbers of individuals over time is a central problem in biology and ecology. I have addressed this problem in the case of the description of the antibodies-parasite competition during Chagas' disease. Now I am finishing an upgrade of our first Chagas model to describe more explicitly the intracellular reproduction of trypanosoma cruzi and then extract information about the cardiac damage produced during the disease.

Reaction-Diffusion Systems:

Reaction-diffusion equations belong to a family of multicomponent models of broad applicability. Although the process A + B -> A is usually related to chemical reactions, it can be used to model a wide variety of processes in physics and biology, such as bacterial diffusion and the evolution of a two phase liquid. In the first case, I am interested in modelling bacterial motion with the use of a Brownian particle with an internal energy depot, extending the analysis of a model recently introduced to describe the dynamics of a microorganism (such as marine bacteria) moving under the combined influences of its own propulsion system and of Brownian forces.