Andrea Baronchelli

I am a Professor of Complexity Science at City, University of London, and I also lead the Token Economy theme at The Alan Turing Institute. Additionally, I am a Research Associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies.

My research explores how people behave and organise themselves in decentralized socio-technical systems. To gain insights, I use complex systems, network science, and machine learning to analyze large datasets, develop mathematical models, and conduct experiments with human subjects.

My work contributes to understanding how people coordinate in social networks, interact with and shape blockchain technology, and how information spreads and creates polarization. I have also extensively investigated, and continue to research, the evolution of social norms, how we categorize the world, and what triggers tipping points in collective behavior. Furthermore, I have explored human mobility and fundamental network science concepts like diffusion processes and the dynamics of time-varying networks.

My research has been published in leading journals such as Nature, Science, PNAS, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, Science Advances, and Physical Review Letters. It has received support from various organizations, including UKRI, PayPal, ESRC, InnovateUK, and the UK Government. In 2019, I received the Young Scientist Award for Socio and Econophysics from the German Physical Society. 

Mapping the NFT revolution


The paper Mapping the NFT revolution: market trends, trade networks, and visual features (Oct '21) presented the first comprehensive analysis of the NFT phenomenon.

Critical mass and tipping points in social convention

I have been researching the dynamics of norm formation and collective behaviour  change for more than 15 years. 

IC2S2'20 Keynote talk

Collective Dynamics of Dark Web Marketplaces

Together with academic and industrial partner we analyse and model licit and illicit trade networks

ACM Collective Intelligence '20 


Selected publications: