Dr. Giacomo Vaccario

Giacomo is a senior researcher at the Chair of Systems Design, ETH Zurich. In this group, he worked as a post-doc and obtained a Doctorate in Science in 2019. Before joining ETH Zurich, he completed the Part III of the Mathematical Tripos from the University of Cambridge and received a Master in Theoretical Physics from Sapienza University of Rome.

Giacomo’s research interests lie in understanding the determinants and effects of cooperation in socio-economic systems. He studies how collaborations are established among firms or scientists to create new knowledge. He also investigates how the knowledge of these actors, in turn, defines their collaborations. To capture this feedback, he combines statistical analysis of patent and publication data with agent-based models. In recent years, he has worked extensively on how psychological and cognitive processes can foster but also hamper the emergence of cooperation. To this end, he has developed mathematical models and experiments leveraging game theory and complex systems theory.

Giacomo publishes papers in major peer-review journals. He is a member of the editorial board for the journal Social Network Analysis and Mining and has been a guest editor of the journal Advances of Complex Systems. He is also an active reviewer for various venues, including Journal of Informetrics, European Physics Journal - Data Science, and Physica A.

On top of the research activity, Giacomo has been teaching the course Agent-Based Modelling of Social Systems with Prof. Frank Schweitzer.