Jekyll2026-05-03T06:08:00+00:00https://ithems-math-soc.github.io/atom.xmlMathematical Social Science TeamA research team at iTHEMS Wako, Japan.Ivan Romić2026-04-15T00:00:00+00:002026-04-15T00:00:00+00:00https://ithems-math-soc.github.io/current/RomicMy research focuses on human and machine behavior. Using economic games, evolutionary game theory, and network science, I study the emergence, persistence, and breakdown of prosocial behavior. I am also interested in whether machines can exhibit socially intelligent behavior and how they perform in multiplayer and networked settings.

]]>Shinobu Utsumi2026-04-15T00:00:00+00:002026-04-15T00:00:00+00:00https://ithems-math-soc.github.io/current/ShinobuMy name is Shinobu Utsumi. I am a JSPS PD Researcher in the Mathematical Social Science Team at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS).

My research is motivated by a fascination with the universal laws hidden behind social and natural phenomena. So far, my work spans multiple interdisciplinary themes:

How are people connected within social systems? Why do cooperation and defection emerge? How do infectious diseases spread through human populations?

Recently, I have also been working on tree structure analysis to reveal the underlying topological principles and geometric beauty of bonsai. Beyond bonsai, art and aesthetics exist in every society across every era — yet they have not been fully explored in sociophysics, sociology, and related fields. I hope to help bridge that gap within this team.

]]>Nikoleta E. Glynatsi2025-09-01T00:00:00+00:002025-09-01T00:00:00+00:00https://ithems-math-soc.github.io/current/GlynatsiMy name is Nikoleta Glynatsi. I am an applied mathematician and research software developer, currently working as a research scientist in the Discrete Event Simulation Research Team at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science. I am also affiliated with the Mathematical Social Science Team at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS).

I was a postdoc at the research group Dynamic of Social Behavior from 2020 to 2024.

I received my PhD from the Department of Mathematics at Cardiff University in 2020 with Dr Vincent Knight. My thesis title was “Understanding responses to environments for the Prisoner’s Dilemma: A meta analysis, multidimensional optimisation and machine learning approach”.

My primary research interest is mathematical modelling and its applications to biology, ecology and sociology.

I mainly program in Python. I am a fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute, a core developer of the Axelrod-Python library and an advocate for open source.

]]>Brian Mintz2025-04-15T00:00:00+00:002025-04-15T00:00:00+00:00https://ithems-math-soc.github.io/current/MintzI am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences of RIKEN National Lab, Tokyo, working with Yohsuke Murase. In 2025, I completed a PhD thesis in the Applied Math department at Dartmouth College advised by Professor Feng Fu, titled “Evolutionary Dynamics of Artificial Agents, Exploration and Learning in Games.”

My research uses game theory and evolutionary modeling to understand the emergence and spread of complex behaviors like cooperation and learning. This subject has applications to many fields including biology, economics, computer science, psychology, ecology, and sociology.

]]>Yohsuke Murase2025-04-01T00:00:00+00:002025-04-01T00:00:00+00:00https://ithems-math-soc.github.io/current/MuraseMy name is Yohsuke Murase. I study how cooperation and collective behavior emerge in complex social systems, from evolutionary game dynamics to networked interactions. My work combines theoretical modeling with large-scale simulation to understand how local rules shape global outcomes.

]]>