Engineering Director
Luís Amaral is the Engineer Director, Board Member, co-founder of SCALES, and Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University. Amaral, a native of Portugal, conducts and directs research that provides insight into the emergence, evolution, and stability of complex social and biological systems. His research aims to address some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity, including the mitigation of errors in healthcare settings, the characterization of the conditions fostering innovation and creativity, and the limits of machine intelligence.
Amaral has published over 180 scientific peer-reviewed papers in leading scientific journals, including Nature, Science, PNAS, Cell, and PLOS Biology. His research has been featured in numerous media sources, both in the US and abroad. Amaral has received a CAREER award from the National Institute of Health, was named a Distinguished Young Scholars in Medical Research by the W.M. Keck Foundation, and has been selected as an Early Career Scientist by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, and of the Network Science Society. In 2020, he received the Provost’s Award for Exemplary Faculty Service.
As a testament to his love of soccer, Luis created a predictive algorithm to determine the best soccer player.