Victor Buendía Ruiz-Azuaga

Postdoc

Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics

University of Tübingen

Email: vbuendiar at onsager dot ugr dot es

Academic Twitter: @vbuendiar

Google Scholar profile

Small bio

I studied Physics at the University of Granada, and got interested in statistical physics and its applications. Then, I moved to Mallorca to study the Master in Physics of Complex Systems. After finishing my Master, I came back to Granada to start my PhD, in co-supervision with the University of Parma, in Italy. I worked under the supervision of Miguel A. Muñoz and Raffaella Burioni styuding synchronization and its relationship with critical phenomena in the brain. Recently I moved to Tübingen, Germany, to continue researching about neuronal dynamics and evolution in the Levina Lab. I also like a lot talking about science (in general), science fiction, playing videogames, and making music.

Research Jobs

Education

(Click for details)

I did my PhD in co-supervision between the universities of Granada (Spain) and Parma (Italy), with Miguel Ángel Muñoz and Raffaella Burioni, respectively.

My thesis, Synchronous and asynchronous dynamics in Neuroscience: a Statistical Physics approach is publicly available and received the cum laude qualification from both Universities. It also received a mention in the 'Giovanni Paladin' award for best thesis in Statistical Physics in Italy.

I studied my Master Degree in the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC), which is affiliated to the University of the Balearic Islands and the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). I obtained a mark of 9.42 over 10, being top of my promotion. I got several honor mentions during the courses.


My Master Thesis was done under the supervision of Manuel Matías (IFISC) and Ricardo Martínez (University of Princeton), proposing and studying a model of bacterial growth mediated by quorum sensing. You can read it here.

I studied a 4-years 240 ECTS degree in Physics at the University of Granada (UGR), obtaining a mark of 8.20 over 10. I also obtained honor mentions in all subjects related to numerical simulation and statistical physics during the degree.


My Final Degree work was done under the supervisision of Elvira Romera and Manuel Calixto (UGR). In this work I analyzed the quantum phase transitions in a 2-state bosonic model.

I have assisted to the following schools for graduate students:
  • Beg Rohu Summer School on Theoretical Physics, June 2021
  • Summer School in Computational and Theoretical Models in Neuroscience, Venice, September 2019
  • School and Workshop on Patterns of Synchrony: Chimera States and Beyond, Trieste, May 2019
  • GEFENOL Summer School on Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, IFISC, June 2016
  • Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships: July of 2016, working with Manuel Matías at IFISC in individual-based models for bacterial growth. This evolved into my Master Thesis later.
  • CNB V Introduction to Research: September 2017: just after finishing my M.Sc. I was one month in the National Biotechnology Center, in Madrid, working at Susanna Manrubia's lab This was the beginning of my first publication.
  • Microbial Studies through 16S amplicon sequencing (Granada, 2020)
  • Inference and learning: a statistical perspective (Granada, 2018)
  • PhD course: Complex systems: dynamics, networks and collective behaviour in Physics, Neuroscience, and Systems Biology (Parma, 2018)
  • Science OutReach Techniques (Granada, 2017)
  • Python for Science and Technical Computing (Granada, 2016)
  • History of Physics (Granada, 2016)

Recognition and awards

  1. Special Mention in the ’Giovanni Paladin’ award to the best Ph.D. thesis of Italy in Statistical Physics, Awarded by the Italian National Society of Statistical Physics.

Research Interests

Collective Behaviour in Neurocience

Theoretical Ecology

Biodiversity

Applications of Statistical Field Theory

Mathematical basis of Music

Skills

  1. Programming: very profficient with C++ and Python. Experience with Mathematica and Julia. I also worked with other languages.
  2. Analytical: Stochastic differential equations, dynamical systems and bifurcation theory, coupled oscillators and synchronization, (quantum) field theory and renormalization group
  3. Tools: Latex, Linux, Git
  4. Other: Videogame and interactive app programming with Godot Engine

List of Publications

  1. Giannakakis, E., Vinogradov, O., Buendía., V. and Levina, A. Recurrent connectivity structure controls the emergence of co-tuned excitation and inhibition. Biorxiv preprint (2023).
  2. Zeraati, R., Buendía, V., Engel, T., and Levina, A. Topology-dependent coalescence controls scaling exponents in finite networks. Arxiv preprint (2022).
  3. Yamamoto, H., Spitzner, P. et al., Modular architecture facilitates noise-driven control of synchrony in neuronal networks. Arxiv preprint (2022).
  4. Corral, R., Buendía, V., and Muñoz, M. A., The excitatory-inhibitory branching process: a parsimonious view of cortical asynchronous states, excitability, and criticality. Phys. Rev. Res. 4, L042027 (2022).
  5. Buendía, V., Villegas, P., Burioni, R., and Muñoz, M.A., The broad edge of synchronisation :Griffiths effects and collective phenomena in brain networks. Phil. Trans. R. Society A, 380:20200424 (2022).
  6. Buendía, V., Villegas, P., Burioni, R., and Muñoz, M.A. Hybrid-type synchronization transitions: Where incipient oscillations, scale-free avalanches, and bistability live together. Phys. Rev. Res., 3 023224 (2021).
  7. Buendía, V., di Santo, S., Bonachela, J.A., and Muñoz, M.A. Feedback mechanisms for self-organization to the edge of a phase transition. Front. in Phys. 8:333 (2021).
  8. Buendía, V., di Santo, S., Villegas, P., Burioni, R., and Muñoz, M.A. Self-organized bistability and its possible relevance for brain dynamics. Phys. Rev. Res 2 (013318) (2020).
  9. Buendía, V., di Santo, S., Villegas, P., Vezzani, A., Burioni, R., and Muñoz, M.A. Jensen's force and the statistical mechanics of cortical asynchronous states. Sci. Rep. 9, 15183 (2019).
  10. Buendía, V., Muñoz, M.A., Manrubia, S. Limited role of spatial self-structuring in emergent trade-offs during pathogen evolution. Sci. Rep., 8, 12476. (2018).

Participation in Conferences

  • BrainNet Workshop 2023 Stockholm, 2023
  • Young Seminars of the Italian Statistical Physics Society. Virtual, 2022
This is a list of conferences and workshops I have been and contributed with a talk, in chronological order:
  • Bienal de la RSEF, Murcia, 2022
  • II Sifs Conference on Statistical Physics, Parma, 2022
  • Winter Workshop on Complex Systems, Besançon, 2022
  • Conference on Complex Systems, Lyon, 2021
  • International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience,Virtual, 2021
  • Fises Joven'21Virtual, 2021
  • Granada Seminar on Computational and Statistical Physics Granada, 2019
  • School and Workshop on Patterns of Synchrony: Chimera States and Beyond Trieste, 2019
  • Stochastic Models in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Venice, 2018
  • Young Researchers at the Crossroads Workshop Palma de Mallorca, 2016.
And finally this is a list of conferences where I contributed with a poster:
  • Bernstein ConferenceBerlin, 2022
  • Bernstein conference Online, 2021
  • Brain Criticality Conference, Online, 2020
  • FisEs'18 Madrid, 2018
  • XXIII National Conference on Statistical Physics and Complex Systems Parma, 2018
This is a list of conferences and workshops I went, which I did not contribute to
  • Advanced Workshop on Nonequilibrium Systems in Physics, Geosciences, and Life Sciences Trieste, 2018.
  • Crossroads in Complex Systems Palma de Mallorca, 2016.
This is a list of conferences and workshops in which I have involved as organizer:
  • Whole brain dynamics: Modeling and applications Satelite Workshop at the Bernstein Conference, , Organizer, Berlin, 2023
  • XXIII and XXIV National Conferences on Statistical Physics and Complex Systems, as Scientific Secretary. Parma, 2018-2019

Science Outreach Activies

Teaching

  • 2022: 15 hours of Teaching in "Complex Networks Seminars" at the University of Tübingen
  • 2019: 3 CFU credits (30 hours) of Teaching Assitance in "Programazione applicata alla Fisica" at the University of Parma
  • 2019: 3 CFU credits (30 hours) of Teaching Assitance in "Programazione applicata alla Fisica" at the University of Parma
  • 2018: 3 CFU credits (30 hours) of Teaching Assitance in "Laboratori de Metodi Computazionali" at the University of Parma
  • 2018: 12 hours of C++ for Scientific Calculus, given with the Association of Physics Students of the University of Granada
  • Apoorva Vikram Master thesis, Timescale determination in V1 under suppresion of feedback, 2023
  • Anastasios Athanasiadis. Master thesis, Stochastic Bifurcations in Neuroscience, 2022
  • Tina Alija: Bachelor thesis Synchronization dynamics in a hierarchical-modular network, 2022