Sandro M. Reia

Computational Physicist
Urban Scientist

Profile

I am a computational physicist and urban scientist with more than a decade of experience using data and computer simulations to understand real-world systems. I study how people move through cities, how populations change, how communities recover from disruption, and how individual choices add up to collective behavior. My work includes research design, software development, data analysis, scientific communication, and collaboration across academic, government, and industry teams.

Research experience

George Mason University

Postdoctoral Researcher, Geography and Geoinformation Science · 2023–Present · Fairfax, Virginia

  • Led development of a virtual urban population that represents the daily activities and travel of more than 20 million people.
  • Redesigned how the simulation shares work across computers, reducing some large runs from days to minutes using Repast4Py and the Message Passing Interface (MPI).
  • Built automated systems that combine population, road, building, activity, and behavioral data into consistent city models.
  • Delivered research findings and city-scale simulation capabilities to L3Harris for IARPA’s HAYSTAC program, collaborating with academic and industry partners to understand everyday and unusual patterns in human movement.

Purdue University

Postdoctoral Researcher, Lyles School of Civil Engineering · 2021–2023 · West Lafayette, Indiana

  • Developed mathematical models of urban growth using migration and population data from more than 3,100 US counties.
  • Built analytical workflows spanning 15 years of American Community Survey data.
  • Identified unusually large migration events and measured how they cause cities—especially smaller ones—to rise or fall in national population rankings.
  • Published first-author research in Nature Communications, Nature Cities, and npj Urban Sustainability on migration, population growth, and urban sprawl.
  • Contributed to a National Science Foundation project studying how communities and infrastructure recover together after disasters.

University of São Paulo

Postdoctoral Researcher, São Carlos Institute of Physics · 2016–2021 · São Carlos, Brazil

  • Built computer simulations to study how groups solve problems, how new ideas spread, and how cultures change through social interaction.
  • Implemented and analyzed large-scale Fortran simulations across approximately 100,000 computational runs.
  • Applied epidemic modeling to 15 years of citation data to study the limits of long-term scientific-impact forecasting.
  • Analyzed nearly 10,000 empirical forecasting experiments to evaluate when collective predictions outperform individual experts.
  • Published research spanning physics, social behavior, networks, and the study of how science itself develops.

Indiana University

Visiting Scholar, School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering · 2017–2018 · Bloomington, Indiana

  • Extended computer models of how innovations spread through social connections and compared them with real-world data.
  • Conducted research with Prof. Santo Fortunato through a visiting fellowship from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).

Selected programs

City-scale human movement — IARPA HAYSTAC

Developed computer models of everyday movement—where people go, when they travel, and what activities they perform—to help distinguish common patterns from unusual ones in large mobility datasets. Led development of a simulation capable of producing realistic daily schedules for the full population of a metropolitan area.

Disaster recovery and resilience — NSF CRISP Type 2

Studied how people, neighborhoods, and infrastructure recover together after a disaster. The research examined how household decisions and failures in connected services—such as transportation, utilities, and community facilities—can speed up or delay recovery.

How new ideas spread — FAPESP

Studied how new ideas spread through populations whose members have different backgrounds and preferences. The models explored how similarity, social influence, media, mobility, and patterns of social connection can help or hinder adoption.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Physics, Statistical and Computational Physics — University of São Paulo, 2015
    Dissertation: Activity, Phase Transitions, and Media Effects in a Sociocultural Model
  • M.Sc. in Physics, Statistical and Computational Physics — University of São Paulo, 2011
    Thesis: Phase Transitions and Nucleation Processes in Cellular Automata Rule Space
  • B.Sc. in Physics, Theoretical Physics — University of São Paulo, 2008

Funding and fellowships

  • 2019–2021 — Postdoctoral Fellowship, Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES)
  • 2017–2018 — Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), grant 16/20874-3
  • 2016–2019 — Postdoctoral Fellowship, FAPESP, grant 15/17277-0
  • 2011–2015 — Ph.D. Fellowship, CAPES
  • 2009–2011 — Master’s Fellowship, CAPES

Academic service

Editorial roles

  • Academic Editor, PLOS ONE — Urban Studies, Complexity, and Networks
  • Topic Editor, Frontiers research topic “Science of Science: A Complex Network Perspective”
  • Review Editor, Frontiers in Physics
  • Review Editor, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Selected reviewing

Reviewer for Nature Communications, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Communications Physics, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Scientific Reports, PeerJ Computer Science, PLOS ONE, Physica A, Physics Letters A, and other journals in complex systems and urban science.

Teaching

  • 2014 and 2012 — Teaching Assistant, Mathematical Physics, University of São Paulo
  • 2010 — Teaching Assistant, Basic Physics, University of São Paulo

Languages

  • Portuguese — native
  • English — Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English

For additional technical skills, certificates, and a complete professional record, download my CV.