Célestin Zimmerlin is a PhD student at MIXTAPES LabCom (CNRS – Deezer), conducting research on the dynamics of music discovery and diffusion. Using tools from statistical physics, he models individual and collective behaviors to understand how new music is integrated into listening practices and propagated across space.

Dr. Lenon Modesto is an agricultural scientist at Sony Computer Science Laboratories (CSL) Paris. He applies his expertise in plant science, microbiology, and agriculture to develop innovative solutions for sustainable and smart farming. With international research experience in Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany, and France, Dr. Modesto brings a global perspective to his work.

I’ve always been fascinated by the tools mathematics offers to describe and understand complex problems in an extraordinarily simple and elegant way. This fascination led me to pursue a PhD in Mathematics and Computer Science (University of Perugia, 2016), where I focused on closed-form solutions to enumeration problems on graphs. Since then, my research journey has taken me through several leading institutions in Italy, including the University of Palermo, the Institute for Complex Systems (ISC-CNR), the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM), and the Enrico Fermi Research Centre (CREF). In these roles, I explored the use of graphs as geometric structures for representing large-scale data, particularly in the context of information flows, opinion dynamics, and the emergence of bias—especially within online environments. These interdisciplinary experiences have deepened my interest in complexity science and its applications across media and society. I’m currently part of the Infosphere team at Sony CSL in Rome, where I integrate natural language processing and statistical learning to develop models and tools that help us better understand online discourse and address the distortions that can undermine it. My aim is to contribute to a more transparent and navigable information ecosystem.

Špela Petrič is a Slovenian hybrid media artist with a background in the natural sciences. Her artistic research and practice combines (bio)media and performativity to enact strange relations between bodies that question the underpinnings of our (bio)technological societies. Recently she has been busy with looking closely at automation of care in agriculture and medicine. Petrič has received several awards, such as the White Aphroid for outstanding artistic achievement (Slovenia), the Bioart and Design Award (Netherlands), and an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (Austria).

Dr Bauer is senior lecturer at the University of Surrey, UK. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Computational Science and Engineering from ETH Zuerich, Switzerland. Afterwards, he did his doctoral studies at the Institute for Neuroinformatics (ETH Zürich/Uni Zürich). After postdoctoral fellowships at Newcastle University (UK) he moved to the University of Surrey in 2020, where he leads the COMBYNE research lab (www.combynelab.com). Dr Bauer conducts research in computational biology and biomedical engineering. His research focuses on developing computational models to better understand complex biological systems, particularly in the areas of neuroscience and oncology. He integrates multi-scale biological data with computational simulations to identify key factors that influence disease progression or treatment efficacy. His interdisciplinary approach bridges gaps between experimental biology and computational science, fostering new avenues for collaboration across disciplines. Notably, he is co-founder and spokesperson of the international BioDynaMo collaboration, which has created the open-source and high-performance agent-based modelling software BioDynaMo (www.biodynamo.org). BioDynaMo has been utilised by many interdisciplinary labs to conduct research as well as to train the next generation of computational biologists

Catherine Pelachaud (CNRS-ISIR) is Director of Research in the laboratory ISIR, Sorbonne University. Her research interest includes socially interactive agent, nonverbal communication (face, gaze, gesture and touch), and adaptive mechanisms in interaction. With her research team, she has been developing an interactive virtual agent platform, Greta, that can display emotional and communicative behaviors. She is co-editor of the ACM handbook on socially interactive agents (2021-22).

Isabelle is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, where she studies the dynamics of photosynthetic microorganisms. Understanding their behavior not only allows to use them as a playground for active matter investigation but also sheds light on how this critical class of organisms adapts to its environment. She is an experimental physicist working at the frontier of physics and biology, in collaboration with theoreticians, biologists and chemists. She completed her PhD at LPENS in Paris under the supervision of Raphaël Jeanneret and Nicolas Desprat and was trained at Ecole Centrale Paris and Institut Pierre-Gilles de Gennes.

Tarek currently serves as a Senior Staff Research Scientist, Flagship Project Lead “AI for Scientific Discovery”, and Head of the Barcelona office at Sony AI (https://ai.sony/). He previously held positions as Head of Strategic AI at DEKRA (https://www.dekra.com/), as interim CTO with acting managerial responsibility for technology, standardization, and operations at a deep-tech startup developing AI quality tooling and services, as Chief Science Officer at Telefonica Innovacion Alpha Health, the health tech moonshot of Telefonica (now Koa Health, http://www.koahealth.com), and as an Assistant Professor in Data Science at City, University of London. Tarek is also active as a startup advisor and consulting AI policy expert, and was the founding chairman (2018-2023) of the German national DIN/DKE Standards Working Committee on AI NA 043-01-42 GA (http://bit.ly/2QeNg7n).

Philippe de Cuetos is an engineer and holds a doctorate in digital sciences. He has held several positions in the telecommunications and audiovisual sectors, in industry (research and technical pre-sales), and then in government (Ministries of Economy and Culture). He is currently Director of Technical and Regulatory Affairs at AFNUM, where he focuses on security and public protection, support for cultural industries, and reducing the environmental impact of digital products.

Julyan Arbel is a researcher at Inria Grenoble with expertise in Bayesian deep learning and Bayesian nonparametrics. He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from Université Paris-Dauphine and an HDR from Université Grenoble Alpes. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Bocconi University in Italy and was later a visiting researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.Beyond his core work in Bayesian deep learning and nonparametrics, his research spans a range of topics, including the theory of sub-Gaussian and sub-Weibull distributions, Approximate Bayesian Computation, variational inference, MCMC, bandits and sequential learning, as well as extreme value theory and risk measures, with applications in ecology, bioinformatics, and neuroimaging. His publications appear in leading journals and conferences across statistics and machine learning.He has contributed to the community through the organization of workshops and conferences, and by serving on editorial boards and program committees. As a supervisor, he has mentored over 20 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who have pursued careers in both academia and industry.