She studies complex systems in a wide range of interdisciplinary fields. She is an expert in nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers and has discovered some remarkable similarities (but also differences) between the behavior of excitable lasers and neurons. She has used and developed nonlinear analysis tools to extract information from complex signals in fields as diverse as biomedicine and climate. Her research interest has been focused on identifying early warning signals of critical transitions and extreme events. She has used Hilbert analysis to identify geographical regions where atmospheric dynamics has experienced pronounced variations in the last 30 years, she has applied symbolic analysis to EEG signals to differentiate brain states, and she has used complex network tools to analyze retina fundus images for early diagnosis of diseases. Her current interests also include sub-seasonal atmospheric predictability and laser speckle pattern analysis for optical remote sensing.

Short CV

Cristina Masoller (1963, Montevideo, Uruguay) is Full Professor at the Physics Department, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC). She received the bachelor and master degrees in physics from Universidad de la República, Uruguay, where she was assistant professor (1989-2004). She received the PhD degree in physics from Bryn Mawr College (USA) in 1999. She was a postdoctoral researcher at University of Nice, at Bangor University and at Universitat de les Illes Balears (2000-2002). She joined UPC with a Ramon i Cajal fellowship in 2004, became Associate Professor in 2009 and Full Professor in 2018. She is co-author of more than 190 articles that have received 4000 citations (Web of Science). She has supervised 12 PhD thesis in the PhD program of the Physics Department, UPC. She is member of the Editorial Board of several journals. She is a Fellow of Optica (formerly OSA), the leading professional society in optics and photonics. She was recognized for contributions in the area of nonlinear dynamics of optical systems.