javier.buldu@urjc.es

Javier Buldú

Full Professor of Physics and Director of the Complex Systems & Fundamental Physics Group at URJC. Research on Complex Networks, Neuroscience, and Sports Analytics.

Madrid

. Spain

Contributor Since June 2026

I am a Full Professor of Applied Physics and Chair of Complex Systems at King Juan Carlos University (URJC), Madrid, Spain, where I direct the Complex Systems & Fundamental Physics Group. I have made internationally recognized contributions to complexity science, nonlinear dynamics, and network theory, applying these approaches to biological, social, and technological systems.

I have devoted my career to understanding how complex systems emerge, organize, and adapt. My research spans fields ranging from neuroscience and collective behaviour to artificial intelligence, socioeconomic systems, and sports analytics. In 2009, I co-founded the Laboratory of Biological Networks at the Center for Biomedical Technology (CTB), which I coordinated for over a decade. During this period, I became a leader in the field of Network Neuroscience, developing graph-theoretical and network-based approaches to study the structure and function of the human brain.

My scientific training includes research appointments at the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), the Center for Astrobiology (CSIC–INTA, Spain), and the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford (UK), together providing me with a strongly interdisciplinary perspective on complex systems research. I have authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications, including articles in leading journals such as Nature Physics, Nature Communications, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, and Physics of Life Reviews.

Over the last decade, I have become a leading researcher in Sports Analytics, applying complexity science and network theory to the study of team dynamics, tactical behaviour, player performance, and decision-making in elite football. I collaborate closely with professional clubs and maintain a long-standing partnership with LaLiga, developing advanced methodologies for the quantitative analysis of players, teams, and match dynamics.

I am also the scientific leader of FutBot, an artificial intelligence platform developed in collaboration with FC Barcelona and Complexity AI, which is capable of generating real-time multilingual football commentary enriched with tactical and analytical insights.

Beyond research, I am the founder and director of the Sicómoro–URJC Chair on Complex Systems, an initiative aimed at promoting complexity science across academia, industry, and society. I have also played an active role in strengthening scientific collaboration between Europe and Latin America through initiatives such as the Latin American Conference on Complex Networks (LANET) and the International School Enredando, contributing to the development of a vibrant international community in complex systems research.

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September 17, 2026

The Convergence of Health and Complexity: How an Interdisciplinary Approach to Complex Networks and Nonlinear Phenomena is Helping to Address Interconnected Maladies of Minds and Bodies

Over the past two decades, complexity science has matured from its origins as a small, largely esoteric subfield of theoretical statistical physics and mathematics into an expansive area of inquiry that bridges disciplines and addresses some of the world’s most acute interconnected challenges. Nowhere has this interdisciplinary, applied process become more apparent than with the ongoing convergence of complexity and health. This convergence is happening at all scales—individual and collective, private and public—across approaches to prevention, treatment, management, and containment in integrative and public health spaces, as well as through applied research and innovation. “Our methodological approach goes on and on down to the level of microbiology and finally finding cures for many diseases,” says Italian American physicist and complex networks scientist Alessandro Vespignani. “All that goes through networks and through a vision that has complex systems at the core. Network science is a way to approach complex systems,” Vespignani explained from within Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute, where he serves as director, leads the Laboratory for the Modeling of Biological and Socio-technical Systems (MOBS) lab, and heads several impactful public health initiatives. “We look at elements and their interactions, and we do not get rid of nonlinear phenomena, feedback loops, et cetera, that exist in real world systems; we need to consider those,” Vespignani continues. “And in that sense, there is even more urgency in the work that we as a community do to respond to those challenges and to be of service to the society.” Explore the full InterDialogue with Alessandro Vespignani. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a critical moment of applied research and broad engagement with public health policy for those, like Vespignani, who work at the interface of complexity and health. But theoretical research and its translation into experiments and action began several years prior and...