Luís Amaral

Key takeaways

Luís Amaral belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Luís Amaral to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Luís Amaral from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Luís A. N. Amaral (born 12 July 1968) is a Portuguese physicist recognized for his research in complex systems and complex networks. His specific research interests include the emergence, evolution, and stability of complex social and biological systems. He is best known for his work in network classification and cartographic methods for uncovering the organization of complex networks. He is currently professor at McCormick School of Engineering and Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University.

Education Amaral received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from the University of Lisbon in 1990 and 1992, respectively. He then went to Boston, where he performed his doctoral work under the supervision of H. Eugene Stanley at Boston University, and received his doctoral degree in physics in 1996. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Forschungszentrum Jülich, MIT, Boston University, and Harvard Medical School. In 2002, he became a professor at Northwestern University.

Academic career Amaral has published over one hundred fifty scientific peer-reviewed papers in leading scientific journals, with more than twelve thousand citations. His research has been featured in many media sources. He is currently editor of several academic journals including Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment and PLoS ONE. He also serves as the graduate program director at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University. He was expected to become the co-director of Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) in the fall of 2013.

Entrepreneurship Amaral is the co-founder and scientific advisor of Chimu Solutions, Inc. The company's main product, Footballrrating.com, tracks the performance of soccer teams and individual players. The technique is based on a paper co-authored by Amaral and the other co-founder of the company, Jordi Duch.

Personal life

Professor Amaral currently lives in the city of Evanston with his wife and his two sons, Jordi and Ferran. Apart from science, he is interested in food and history. He is also an avid soccer fan, particularly for the Portugal national soccer team and Sport Lisboa e Benfica.

Awards and honors Fellow, American Physical Society (2014) Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012) Invited Participant in NAE Japan-American Frontiers of Engineerium Symposium, National Academy of Engineering (2009) Member of Advisory Board on "Complex Systems", James S. McDonnell Foundation (2009) Early Career Scientist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2009) Invited Participant, NA-Keck Futures Initiative on Complex Systems, National Academies and W. M. Keck Foundation (2008) Distinguished Young Scholar in Medical Research, W. M. Keck Foundation (2006) Invited Participant on Workshop on Transformative Research, National Science Board (2005) Invited speaker at German-American Frontiers of Science Symposium, National Academy of Sciences and Humboldt Foundation (2005) Organizer, 11th Annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, National Academy of Engineering (2005) K-25 Career Award, NIGMS/NIH (2004) Invited participant in 10th Annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, National Academy of Engineering (2004) Invited participant in 9th Annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, National Academy of Engineering (2003) Searle Leadership Fund Award, Northwestern University (2002) Postdoctoral Fellowship (2 years), Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal (1997) Postdoctoral Fellowship (15 months), DFG, Germany (1995) Pre-doctoral Fellowship (3 years), JNICT, Portugal (1992) Pre-doctoral Masters Fellowship (2 years), JNICT, Portugal (1990) Scholarship (10 years), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal (1981)

Selected publications Malmgren, R.D.; Ottino, J.M.; Amaral, L.A.N. (2010). "The role of mentorship in protégé performance". Nature. 463 (7298): 622–626. arXiv:1006.2312. Bibcode:2010Natur.465..622M. doi:10.1038/nature09040. PMC 6697046. PMID 20520715. Malmgren, R.D.; Stouffer, D.B.; Campanharo, A.S.L.O.; Amaral, L.A.N. (2009). "On Universality in Human Correspondence Activity". Science. 325 (5948): 1696–1700. arXiv:0909.4724. Bibcode:2009Sci...325.1696M. doi:10.1126/science.1174562. PMID 19779200. S2CID 17531874. Malmgren, R.D.; Stouffer, D.B.; Motter, A.E.; Amaral, L.A.N. (2008). "A Poissonian explanation for heavy tails in e-mail communication". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105 (47): 18153–18158. arXiv:0901.0585. Bibcode:2008PNAS..10518153M. doi:10.1073/pnas.0800332105. PMC 2587567. PMID 19017788. Sales-Pardo, M.; Guimera, R.; Moreira, A.A.; Amaral, L.A.N. (2007). "Extracting the hierarchical organization of complex systems". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104 (39): 15224–15229. arXiv:0705.1679. Bibcode:2007PNAS..10415224S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0703740104. PMC 2000510. PMID 17881571. Guimera, R.; Mossa, S.; Turtschi, A.; Amaral, L.A.N. (2005). "The worldwide air transportation network: Anomalous centrality, community structure, and cities' global roles". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102 (22): 7794–7799. arXiv:cond-mat/0312535. Bibcode:2005PNAS..102.7794G. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407994102. PMC 1142352. PMID 15911778. Guimera, R.; Uzzi, B.; Spiro, J.; Amaral, L.A.N. (2005). "Team assembly mechanisms determine collaboration network structure and team performance". Science. 308 (5722): 697–702. Bibcode:2005Sci...308..697G. doi:10.1126/science.1106340. PMC 2128751. PMID 15860629. Guimera, R.; Amaral, L.A.N. (2005). "Functional cartography of complex metabolic networks". Nature. 433 (7028): 895–900. arXiv:q-bio/0502035. Bibcode:2005Natur.433..895G. doi:10.1038/nature03288. PMC 2175124. PMID 15729348. Liljeros, F.; Edling, C.R.; Amaral, L.A.N.; Stanley, H.E.; Aberg, Y. (2001). "The web of human sexual contacts". Nature. 411 (6840): 907–908. arXiv:cond-mat/0106507. Bibcode:2001Natur.411..907L. doi:10.1038/35082140. PMID 11418846. S2CID 14559344. Amaral, L.A.N.; Scala, A.; Barthelemy, M.; Stanley, H.E. (2000). "Classes of small-world networks". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97 (21): 11149–11152. arXiv:cond-mat/0001458. Bibcode:2000PNAS...9711149A. doi:10.1073/pnas.200327197. PMC 17168. PMID 11005838.

Notes

External links Amaral Lab website Department website profile Chimu Solutions, Inc.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Luís Amaral

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Luís Amaral claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Luís Amaral before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Luís Amaral ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Luís Amaral

In research: Luís Amaral appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Luís Amaral in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Luís Amaral is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1968 births, 21st-century Portuguese scientists, Boston University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Luís Amaral outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Luís Amaral in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Luís Amaral means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Luís Amaral out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Luís Amaral in simple terms?

Luís A. N.

Why does Luís Amaral matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Luís Amaral?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Luís Amaral.