Ricard Solé is ICREA research professor at the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies, currently working at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where he is the head of the Complex Systems Lab located at the PRBB. He teaches undergraduate courses on Biomathematics, Biological Design, and Complex Diseases.
Ricard completed degrees in both physics and biology at the University of Barcelona and received his PhD in physics at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He is also External Professor of the Santa Fe Institute (New Mexico, USA), fellow of the European Centre for Living Technology (Venice, Italy), and external faculty of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at UCSF. He is member of the editorial board of Biology Direct and PLoS ONE. He has received a European Research Council Advanced Grant (ERC 2012) and support from the Fundación Botin.
Ricard’s current research focuses on understanding the evolutionary origins of complex systems, using both mathematical models and experimental approaches based on synthetic biology. He has proposed the concept of “synthetic major transitions” as a unifying framework to explore the origins of innovation in evolution using a parallel approach, namely the potential for building or simulating synthetic systems that can recreate past evolutionary events. This includes the origin of protocells, multicellular systems, symbiosis, cognition, and language. Another research area deals with unstable evolutionary dynamics, namely the dynamics of biological systems (particularly RNA viruses and cancer) that exhibit a tendency towards high genetic instability as part of their adaptation potential. Moreover, Ricard also introduced the concept of “terraforming” endangered or human-made ecosystems to avoid catastrophic shifts. The success of this proposal will require the development of a new synthesis involving multiple scales and conceptual frameworks, from synthetic biology and cellular circuits to ecological communities.
Related
Signup
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 1 year | Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie records the user consent for the cookies in the "Analytics" category. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 1 year | The GDPR Cookie Consent plugin sets the cookie to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 1 year | Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie records the user consent for the cookies in the "Necessary" category. |
CookieLawInfoConsent | 1 year | CookieYes sets this cookie to record the default button state of the corresponding category and the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. |
PHPSESSID | session | This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie stores and identifies a user's unique session ID to manage user sessions on the website. The cookie is a session cookie and will be deleted when all the browser windows are closed. |
viewed_cookie_policy | 1 year | The GDPR Cookie Consent plugin sets the cookie to store whether or not the user has consented to use cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
mec_cart | 1 month | Provides functionality for our ticket shop |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 6 months | YouTube sets this cookie to measure bandwidth, determining whether the user gets the new or old player interface. |
VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA | 6 months | YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's cookie consent state for the current domain. |
YSC | session | Youtube sets this cookie to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. |
yt-remote-connected-devices | never | YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos. |
yt-remote-device-id | never | YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos. |
yt.innertube::nextId | never | YouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. |
yt.innertube::requests | never | YouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_ga | 1 year | Google Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors. |
_ga_* | 1 year | Google Analytics sets this cookie to store and count page views. |
_gat_gtag_UA_* | 1 min | Google Analytics sets this cookie to store a unique user ID. |
_gid | 1 day | Google Analytics sets this cookie to store information on how visitors use a website while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the collected data includes the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. |