Flaminio Squazzoni is a Professor of Sociology and teaches Behavioural Sociology. He is the editor of JASSS-Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, and a member of the editorial board of Research Integrity and Peer Review and Sistemi Intelligenti. He is an advisory editor of the Wiley Series in Computational and Quantitative Social Science and the Springer Series in Computational Social Science. He is the former President of the European Social Simulation Association (Sept 2012/Sept 2016) and the former Director of the NASP ESLS PhD Programme in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies (2015-2016).
Phone: +390250321017
Email: flaminio.squazzoni@unimi.it
X: @squazzoni
Latest publications:
Adaptive network responses to financial shocks: evidence from Bitcoin transaction data. Socio-Economic Review: mwag040. 2026. doi:doi: 10.1093/esr/jcaf057. (with M. Venturini & D. García-Costa)
An experimental study on institutions and social norms of tax payment. European Sociological Review, jcaf057. 2026. doi: 10.1093/esr/jcaf057. (With G. Pasin & A. Szekely)
Raffaele Vacca is an Associate Professor of Sociology. Before joining the Behave Lab, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Florida (UF, USA), where he also held affiliate appointments in the One Health Center, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR). He is an affiliate scientist with UF BEBR and its Network Science Lab, which he co-directed before moving to Milan. Most of his work is concerned with social networks, migration, and health in Europe and the USA. He is also interested in the study of collaboration, communities and inequalities in science.
Personal website: www.raffaelevacca.com
Email: raffaele.vacca@unimi.it
X: @raffaelevacca
Latest publications:
Semantic structure in Large Language Model disagreement: an analysis of representation spaces in conspiracy content classification. In G.M. Dimitri, S. Aslan, S. Montanelli, M. Ravanelli, C. Subakan, & E. Trentin (Eds.), Artificial Neural Networks in Pattern Recognition. 12th IAPR TC3 Workshop, ANNPR 2026, Milan, Italy, October 7–9, 2026, Proceedings (pp. 334-345). Springer. 2026. (With A.-Y. Gupta & G.M. Dimitri).
Social networks and migrant health: theoretical frameworks, mechanisms, and evidence. In B. Bilecen & M.J. Lubbers (Eds.), Handbook on International Migration and Social Networks (pp. 275-290). Cheltenham: Elgar.
Federico Bianchi is Assistant Professor of Sociology. He holds a joint PhD in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies from the University of Milan and the University of Brescia (Italy), where he was also a post-doctoral researcher. His main research interests are: (i) the link between economic exchange, solidarity, and inter-group conflict; (ii) the impact of social relationships on health; and (iii) the integration of agent-based modelling with social network analysis. He teaches Social Network Analysis and is a member of the editorial board of Sociologica – International Journal for Sociological Debate. He is the author of Reti sociali. Meccanismi e modelli (Il Mulino, 2023, for Italian readers) and is currently co-editing the Elgar Encyclopedia of Analytical Sociology (Elgar, expected 2027, with Filippo Barbera).
Personal website: https://federico-bianchi.github.io
Email: federico.bianchi1@unimi.it
Bluesky: @federicobianchi.bsky.social
Latest publications:
The paradox of competition: How funding models could undermine the uptake of data sharing practices. Research Policy, 54(10): 105340, 2025. doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2025.105340. (With T. Klebel, T. Ross-Hellauer, & F. Squazzoni)
Friends can help to aim high: peer influence and selection effects on academic ambitions and achievement. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 2024. doi: 10.1177/02724316241273427. (With E. Vit, M. Castellani, & K. Takács)
Margherita Criveller is a post-doctoral researcher, studying open-science policies. She obtained her PhD in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies at the NASP doctoral school in 2025. She holds a BA in Economic History from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy) and a MA in Global Politics and Society from the University of Milan. Her research interests intertwine the historical perspective with behavioural game theory and social network analysis of labour markets. She is currently studying the networks of Italian mercenaries in the 1400s, delving into the institutional aspects and social norms that governed the relationships between regional states and mercenaries’ familial companies.
Email: margherita.criveller@unimi.it.
Elena De Gioannis is a post-doctoral researcher. She holds a PhD in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies from the University of Milan’s NASP programme. She is mostly working on experimental analysis of gender stereotypes in education. She is also an expert in systematic reviews and the application of this methodology in the social sciences.
Personal website: https://elenadegioannis.notion.site
Email: elena.degioannis@unimi.it
Bluesky: @elenadegioannis.bsky.social
X: @ElenaDeGioannis
Latest publications:
Gender differences in agentic career goals and the choice of field of study. European Journal of Education, 61(3), e70817, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.70817. (With R. Ghio).
Through the lens of the press: a content text analysis on how older adults are portrayed in Italian newspapers (2017–2024). The International Journal of Aging and Human Development. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1177/009141502614567. (With M. Ascolese & F. Squazzoni).
Ayan-Yue Gupta is a post-doctoral researcher within the ConsNet project. Funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN P2022955FC), ConsNet is a study of conspiracy beliefs, their social network determinants (online and offline), and their impacts on health. He is a computational social scientist interested in applications of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to the study of politically relevant discourse. In his current work, he uses NLP methods and social media data to study the contents of conspiracy beliefs, their linguistic characteristics, their spread, and their potential impacts on health. He completed his PhD in Sociology at the University of Bristol (UK), where he conducted research using large language models to investigate changes in the British governmental discourse around topics such as resilience and sustainability. Beyond computational social science, Ayan has interests in the philosophy of language and pragmatics.
Personal website: https://ayanyuegupta.github.io/
Email: ayan.gupta@unimi.it
Latest publications:
Semantic structure in Large Language Model disagreement: an analysis of representation spaces in conspiracy content classification. In G.M. Dimitri, S. Aslan, S. Montanelli, M. Ravanelli, C. Subakan, & E. Trentin (Eds.), Artificial Neural Networks in Pattern Recognition. 12th IAPR TC3 Workshop, ANNPR 2026, Milan, Italy, October 7–9, 2026, Proceedings (pp. 334-345). Springer. 2026. (With R. Vacca & G.M. Dimitri).
The Pragmatics of Governmental Discourse: Resilience, Sustainability and Wellbeing. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2025.
Francesco Renzini is a post-doctoral researcher in the EU funded FAiR “Finding Agreement in Return” research project. He defended his dissertation on “Computational and Experimental Studies in Network Formation” on 24 April 2024 at the University of Milan, within the NASP Economic Sociology and Labour Studies Programme. His main interests are network formation, the integration of agent-based models and network analysis, and the experimental analysis of social behaviour.
Email: francesco.renzini@unimi.it
Latest publications:
The devil’s dung? Money as a mechanism of generalized reciprocity in human societies. Rationality and Society, 38(3): 283-310. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1177/10434631261445825. (With E.C. Ferraciolli, T. Araújo, & F. Squazzoni).
Network formation dynamics in asymmetric coordination games. Rationality and Society, 37(3): 356-394. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/10434631241309265
William Yick Chung is a PhD student within the NASP Economic Sociology and Labour Studies programme. William holds a double degree of BSS(GL) & LLB at the University of Hong Kong (China) and an MA in International Relations (Global Political Economy) at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands). His research interest is on the experimental and computational study of social norms, social dilemmas, and collective behaviour.
Email: yick.chung@unimi.it.
Latest publication:
How model choice and memory shape preference consistency in Large Language Models. Sociological Methods & Research, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1177/00491241261492203.
Roberta Alidori is a PhD student within the NASP programme in Economic Sociology, Organisations and Labour Studies. Her doctoral research examines how personal networks shape health inequalities between migrants and non-migrants and across ethnic identification groups, exploring both the supportive and the straining sides of social ties. Her broader interests include the sociology of health, migration, social network analysis, and mixed-methods research.
Email: roberta.alidori@unimi.it.
Email: cristina.pozzoli@unimi.it
Former members
Carlo Debernardi obtained his PhD in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies in a cotutelle agreement between the University of Milan (NASP doctoral school) and the University of Agder (Norway) in 2025. He holds a BA in Philosophy at the University of Turin (Italy) and an MA in Logic, Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Florence (Italy).
Personal page: https://carlodebernardi.github.io/.
Minsu Jang was a post-doctoral researcher within the ConsNet project, working at the Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods of the University of Milano-Bicocca. Funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN P2022955FC), ConsNet is a study of conspiracy beliefs, their social network determinants (online and offline), and their impacts on health. Minsu is a political scientist exploring mass political behavior with a focus on political information processing. He had earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh (USA) in 2024.
Personal website: https://minsujang25.github.io/
Esteban Muñoz obtained his PhD in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies in 2025 within the NASP doctoral school.He holds a BA and a MA in Sociology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Esteban has also worked as adjunct instructor at Universidad Andrés Bello and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Vieri Pistocchi was a post-doctoral researcher in the NetHealth project, funded by Fondazione Cariplo (project number 2023-0859), in 2024-2025. For his PhD in Sociology at the University of Trento (Italy), Vieri used a combination of social network and survey data, as well as advanced statistical models for networks, to examine the impact of bullying and negative relationships on the integration of Muslim youth in Germany. He completed his MA in sociology at the University of Mannheim (Germany) and his BA in political sciences and international studies at the University of Florence (Italy), with additional studies at the University of Salamanca (Spain) and the University of Groningen (The Netherlands).
Shyaam Ramkumar obtained a PhD in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies (NASP doctoral school) in 2022. He holds a BSc in Economics from Northwestern University and a MSc in Industrial Ecology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Contact him here.
Pietro Saccomanno was a post-doctoral researcher at the Behave Lab. He obtained his PhD in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies at the NASP doctoral school in 2025. He holds a BA in Communication and Society and an MA in Digital Communication and Public Opinion from the University of Milan. His research interests are in the field of behavioural sociology and experimental methods applied to social media settings. In his PhD dissertation he studied the influence of Internet memes on young adults’ political polarization.
Email: pietro.saccomanno@unimi.it.
Fabio Torreggiani obtained a PhD in Economic Sociology and Labour Studies at the NASP doctoral school in 2025, funded by Collegio Carlo Alberto (Italy). He is now a research fellow of the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento (Italy). He holds a BA and a MA in Political Science from the University of Bologna (Italy).
Marco Venturini has obtained a PhD in Economic Sociology jointly given by the University of Milan and the Sorbonne University in 2026. His dissertation included a network and agent-based study on cryptocurrencies and financial markets. He now works in a digital asset management company.