"A city is first and foremost a social reactor. It works like a star, attracting people and accelerating social interaction and social outputs."
Luis Bettencourt is a leading voice in the emerging field of urban science, known for pioneering a multidisciplinary approach to understanding cities as complex systems. His work brings together biology, sociology, network theory, and data science to explore how cities evolve and impact human life.
At the University of Chicago, Bettencourt leads the Urban Science Laboratory, where he is spearheading new methods and evidence-based frameworks to inform equitable and sustainable urban development in the 21st century. He is also an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and an active contributor to global conversations on complex systems, emergent engineering, and civic innovation.
