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Dr. Mario Castro Ponce

Current position:
Professor
Research Area:
Artificial Intelligence
Association date:
01/Oct/2002
Location:
AA25. D-411
Phone extension number:
+34 91 542-2800 ext. 4224
Email:
mario.castro@iit.comillas.edu
Personal web page:
https://www.iit.comillas.edu/personas/marioc
ORCID:
0000-0003-3288-6144
Researcher ID:
A-3585-2009
Google Scholar ID:
OTxuF1EAAAAJ
SCOPUS:
38961005800
ResearchGate:
Mario_Castro_Ponce
IEEE:
37307948200
LinkedIn:
mariocastroponce
Academic Report:
Review

Biography:

MCP holds a PhD in Physics from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is a member of the Institute for Research in Technology (IIT) and the Interdisciplinary Group of Complex Systems (GISC). MCP has been the Principal Investigator (PI) of six Spanish national research projects and participated in five European projects under Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions and H2020. The central theme of these projects was the application of Complexity theory to model and predict experimental data in Physics, Biology, and Social Sciences. MCP has published his research in prestigious journals such as PNAS, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, and Science Translational Medicine. In this sense, most of the research carried out by the MCP has been carried out in collaboration with experimental groups from all over the world, from Immunology to Condensed Matter. MCP has been a visiting researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and a visiting Professor at the University of Leeds (2016-2017)


Areas of interest:

Biophysics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics, Theoretical Immunology, Bayesian Statistics, Epidemiology, Forest Fires


Experience:

He has published in journals such as PNAS, Physical Review Letters, Nature Communications, Science Translational Medicine, Physical Review B, Scientific Reports and Frontiers in Immunology, to name a few. He has been the Principal Investigator of 5 Spanish Ministry of Science research projects. He has participated in 10 projects, including 3 European projects within Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (of which he has been the IP of the Comillas node) and H2020. The central theme of these projects was the application of Statistical Mechanics methods to model complex systems, with particular emphasis on modelling and predicting experimental data. Since 2009, all MCP projects have focused on biophysics and theoretical immunology, with around 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals with about 4000 citations. MCP's research has been reviewed in various media (BBC Radio 4, RNE-Radio 1, El País, Muy Interesante, and other Spanish newspapers).


Skills:

MCP's analytical skills include agent-based simulations, stochastic equations, reaction-diffusion equations with a strong emphasis on perturbation and numerical methods. MCP is also an experienced programmer in different programming paradigms (i) General-purpose languages: Python, C, C++, Java; (ii) Scripting languages: Matlab, bash, awk; (iii) Statistical and Bayesian languages: R, JAGS, BUGS; and (iv) Symbolic software: Mathematica, Maple. Recently, MCP has used different Artificial Intelligence tools such as: Bayesian networks, Hidden Markov models, Unsupervised machine learning: clustering or Large language models.


Current research interests:

Complex Systems; Epidemic models; Probabilistic Machine Learning; Theoretical Immunology; Biophysics; Stochastic Processes; Serious Games.


Highlighted Publications

show 5 highlighted publications

Journal Publications

show 111 journal publications

Projects

show 11 projects

Ph.D. Thesis

show 10 Ph.D. Thesis

Conference Papers

show 91 conference papers

International Exchanges

  • Jul - Aug 2018, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Department, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos (United States of America).
  • Sep 2016 - Jul 2017, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds. Leeds (United Kingdom).
  • Aug 2014, Laboratory of Computational Immunology, Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT). Cambridge (United States of America).
  • Jul - Aug 2014, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Department, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos (United States of America).
  • Feb 2014, Department of Applied Mathematicas, University of Leeds. Leeds (United Kingdom).
  • Jul - Aug 2013, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Department, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos (United States of America).
  • Jul - Aug 2012, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Department, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos (United States of America).
  • Jul - Aug 2011, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Department, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos (United States of America).
  • Jul - Aug 2010, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Department, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos (United States of America).
  • Jul - Aug 2009, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Department, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos (United States of America).
show 10 international exchanges

Invited Conferences and Seminars

  • Presentation " Geometry, Physics, and Inference: A perspective from information ". Universidad de Sevilla. Seville (Spain). May 2026.
  • Conference "Death from a physics perspective" IX Seminario Interdisciplinar CTR «La muerte: perspectivas interdisciplinares». Cátedra de Ciencia, Tecnología y Religión. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Dec 2025.
  • Conference "Designing activities with AI support" Plan de formación IA para PDI. IA para la enseñanza y evaluación. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jul 2025.
  • Presentation "The statistical physics of virus-endosome dynamics" Spanish Network on Physical Virology - BioFiViNet VII. CNB-CSIC; Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Universidad de Barcelona; y ICMAB-CSIC. Madrid (Spain). Mar 2025.
  • Conference "Mathematical modeling of intrahost dynamics" Update Work Package 4 Project EPICVIR. EPICVIR consortium. London (United Kingdom). Jan 2025.
  • Round table "What are the limits of AI?" VII Seminario Interdisciplinar Cátedra Hana y Francisco José Ayala de Ciencia, Tecnología y Religión. Cátedra Hana y Francisco José Ayala de Ciencia, Tecnología y Religión. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Dec 2023.
  • Seminar "If correlation does not imply causation, then what?". Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jul 2023.
  • Conference "Identifiability matters: A closer look at the art of mathematical modelling" Mathematical Immunology and Virology Meeting. University of Leeds; British Society for Immunology. Leeds (United Kingdom). May 2023.
  • Conference "Identifiability and data-driven modeling in virus infections and immne response systems" Workshop to doctorate students at School of Mathematics. University of Leeds. Leeds (United Kingdom). May 2023.
  • Chair in "Round table: What about ChatGPT? Artificial intelligence in higher education; Implications, challenges and opportunities". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Mar 2023.
  • Workshop "Cybercrime: learn how to defend yourself by playing games" Semana de la Ciencia y la Innovación 2022. Fundación para el conocimiento madri+d. Comunidad de Madrid. Madrid (Spain). Nov 2022.
  • Workshop "Brownian dynamics simulations of the B-cell activation" Third Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics in Biological Systems. Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Madrid (Spain). Jun 2022.
  • Round table "What the pandemic took away: How has the pandemic affected environmental and health law?" Semana de la Ciencia y la Innovación 2021. Fundación para el conocimiento madri+d. Comunidad de Madrid. Madrid (Spain). Nov 2021.
  • Conference "The H2020 project RAYUELA: a fun way to fight cybercrime" VI Jornadas Nacionales de Investigación en Ciberseguridad. Universidad de Castilla La Mancha. Online. Jun 2021.
  • Round table "Agenda 2030: Environmental and health law in the post-covid era" XX Semana de la Ciencia y la Innovación 2020. Fundación para el conocimiento madri+d. Comunidad de Madrid. Madrid (Spain). Nov 2020.
  • Conference "Can we predict when the next pandemic will be?" XX Semana de la Ciencia y la Innovación 2020. Fundación para el conocimiento madri+d. Comunidad de Madrid. Madrid (Spain). Nov 2020.
  • Chair in "Biophysics of immune response" 12th European Biophysics Congress - EBSA 2019. European Biophysical Societies' Association (EBSA); y International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). Madrid (Spain). Jul 2019.
  • Round table "Artificial intelligence in industry and society" Conversaciones 4.0. Cátedra de Industria Conectada - Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Apr 2018.
  • Conference "Scientific publishing models: implications for researchers" Seminario divulgativo. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jun 2016.
  • Conference "Stem cells and regenerative medicine: present and future" Conferencia Tecnooptimismo ¿Única esperanza?. Cátedra de Ciencia, Tecnología y Religión - Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Feb 2015.
  • Conference "Energy and economic sustainability" Ciclo de Conferencias «Desafíos del ecologismo actual». Cátedra de Ciencia, Tecnología y Religión - Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Nov 2014.
  • Presentation "Antibody-dependent enhancement of dengue infections: insight from models" First International and Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Ecology, Evolution and Dynamics of Dengue and other Related Diseases. The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University. Phoenix (United States of America). Aug 2014.
  • Seminar "Doing science today: from choosing the right journal to measuring your scientific impact". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). May 2014.
  • Seminar "Complex networks". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Mar 2014.
  • Conference "Climate variables and seasonal influenza" Seminars of the Theoretical Biology Department. Utrecht University. Utrecht (Netherlands). Feb 2013.
  • Conference " Ion beam induced stress in crystalline silicon" MolSim 2012: Understanding Molecular Simulation. Amsterdam Center for Multiscale Modelling. Amsterdam (Netherlands). Jan 2012.
  • Seminar "The physics of cauliflowers-like growth". Los Alamos National Laboratory -Center for Nonlinear Studies. Los Alamos (United States of America). Aug 2009.
  • Seminar "Mechanical properties of aluminum nanowires". Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC). Santander (Spain). Feb 2009.
  • Presentation "Intrusion detection system with artificial intelligence" FIST Conference: International Edition June 2004. Madrid (Spain). Jun 2004.
  • Workshop "Chaotic vs Thermal Noise" Workshop on nonequilibrium phenomena and phase transitions in complex systems conferencia invitada. Benasque (Spain). Sep 2003.
  • Workshop "Heterogeneous nucleation with a phase-field model" III Workshop on instabilities and fluctuations in surface growth conferencia invitada. Barcelona (Spain). Feb 2003.
show 31 invited conferences and seminars

Organization of Scientific Meetings

  • Organization of "9th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications". Grupo de Sistemas Complejos -GSC- (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). Madrid (Spain) Online. Dec 2020.
  • Permanent member at "Congress of Statistical Physics - FISES" RSEF / GEFENOL. Apr 2014 - Today.
  • Organization of "Workshop «Nanoscale Pattern Formation at Surfaces»". Universidad Carlos III; CSIC y Universidad Pontificia Comillas. San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Spain). Sep 2011.
  • Organization of "Nanoscale pattern formation at surfaces". Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Universidad Pontificia Comillas. San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Spain). Sep 2011.
  • Organization of "Frontiers in interface physics: microfluidics, biomembranes and nanostructures". Benasque (Spain). Nov 2010.
  • Organization of "IV Workshop del GISC". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Feb 2008.
  • Organization of "FIST Conference International Edititon June 2004". Madrid (Spain). Jun 2004.
show 7 organization of scientific meetings

External Training Courses

  • "New atheism", in Curso MOOC "Cuestiones de ciencia y religión". Cátedra Hana y Francisco José Ayala de Ciencia, Tecnología y Religión. Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Mar - May 2018.
show 1 external training courses

Patents

  • "Método de medición del tono vascular ex vivo y cámara de flujo". Owner(s): Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Priority country: Madrid (Spain). Dec 2015
show 1 patents

External Relevant Positions

  • Evaluator Agencia Nacional de Evaluación y Prospectiva (ANEP), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Madrid (Spain). Jan 2007 - Today.
show 1 external relevant positions

Media and research dissemination

show 15 media and research dissemination

Other Activities

  • Doctoral Defense Committee of "Pizarroso Gonzalo, J. «Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) techniques based on partial derivatives with applications to neural networks»". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Dec 2023.
  • Doctoral Defense Committee of "Espejo González, R. «A complex-network approach to support transmission expansion planning»". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Oct 2019.
  • Doctoral Defense Committee of "Alonso Martínez, I. «Análisis y optimización del recurso UMLS en la recuperación de información biomédica mediante métricas de similitud semántica»". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jan 2016.
  • Doctoral Defense Committee of "Vivo, E. «Instabilities and anisotropies in stochastic equations with generic scale invariance»". Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Madrid (Spain). Jul 2014.
  • Doctoral Defense Committee of "Matanza Domingo, J. «Improvements in the PLC systems for smart grids environments»". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Oct 2013.
show 5 other activities

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