Ricard Solé

Ricard Solé

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Life & Medical Sciences

I am ICREA Research Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where I'm the head of the Complex Systems Lab. I am also External Professor of the Santa Fe Institute (New Mexico, USA) fellow member of the European Center for Living Technology (Venice, IT) and external faculty of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at UCSF. I am also member of the editorial board of several international journals. I obtained my degrees in Physics and Biology at the University of Barcelona and received my PhD in Physics at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. I have been awarded with James McDonnell Foundation, Botín Foundation and ERC Advanced Grants.


Research interests

One of my main research interests is understanding the origins of complexity in living and artificial systems, and how major transitions can be explained by means of statistical physics approaches. To this goal, my Lab develops both theoretical and experimental research, including an ambitious program on synthetic biology. The later area includes an exploration of synthetic multicellular systems, synthetic swarm intelligence and strategies to redesign existing ecosystems to fight climate change and its future impact.

Selected publications

- Sole R, Moses M & Forrest S 2019, 'Liquid brains, solid brains.', Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society Of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 374, 1774, 20190040 - 20190040.

- Pinero J & Sole R 2019, 'Statistical physics of liquid brains', Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-biological Sciences, 374, 1774, 20180376.

- Sardanyes J, Pinero J & Sole R 2019, 'Habitat loss-induced tipping points in metapopulations with facilitation', Population Ecology, .

- Olle-Vila A & Sole R 2019, 'Cellular heterogeneity results from indirect effects under metabolic tradeoffs', Royal Society Open Science, 6, 9, 190281.

- Aguade-Gorgorio G & Sole R 2019, 'Genetic instability as a driver for immune surveillance', Journal For Immunotherapy Of Cancer, 7, 1, 345.