Alessandro Vespignani

Alessandro Vespignani (born April 4, 1965 in Rome) is an Italian physicist and Professor of Informatics and Cognitive Science at Indiana University. He also holds adjunct positions in the Departments of Physics and Statistics at IU. Vespignani is known for his work on complex networks, and particularly for work on the applications of network theory to the spread of disease and for studies of the topological properties of the Internet. He is author, together with Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, of the book "Evolution and Structure of the Internet" .

Career and Research

Alessandro Vespignani received his undergraduate degree and Ph.D., both in physics and both from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, in 1990 and 1993 respectively. Following postdoctoral research at Yale University and Leiden University, he worked at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste for five years, and briefly at the University of Paris-Sud, before moving to Indiana University in 2004. Vespignani has worked in a number of areas of physics, including characterization of non-equilibrium phenomena and phase transitions, and collaborated with, among others, Luciano Pietronero and Benoit Mandelbrot. He is best known, however, for his work on complex networks. He describes his current research as being focused on "interdisciplinary application of statistical and numerical simulation methods in the analysis of epidemic and spreading phenomena and the study of biological, social and technological networks." [ [http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/people/profiles.asp?u=alexv Home page of Alessandro Vespignani] ] .

Of particular note is his work with Romualdo Pastor-Satorras in which the two demonstrated that for a disease propagating on a random scale-free network the transmission probability or infectivity necessary to sustain an outbreak tends to zero in the limit of large network size. In practice this means that such a disease will never die out, no matter what steps are taken to reduce the probability of its transmission between individuals.

Notable Publications

* cite journal
author = R. Pastor-Satorras and A. Vespignani
year = 2001
title = Epidemic spreading in scale-free networks
journal = Physical Review Letters
volume = 86
pages = 3200-3203
doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3200
* cite journal
author = R. Pastor-Satorras, A. Vazquez, and A. Vespignani
year = 2001
title = Dynamical and correlation properties of the Internet
journal = Physical Review Letters
volume = 87
pages = 258701
doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.258701
* cite book
last = Pastor-Satorras
first = R.
coauthors = Vespignani, A.
title = Evolution and Structure of the Internet
publisher = Cambridge University Press
date = 2004
isbn = 0521826985

References