Ciro Cattuto

Ciro Cattuto is a physicist whose research applies data science and machine learning to human proximity and infectious-disease epidemiology. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics at Perugia, held research posts at Michigan, RIKEN, and the Enrico Fermi Center, then coauthored a 2008 study of semantic communities in social tags and helped found SocioPatterns. At ISI Foundation, he led its first Data Science group from 2010 and became Scientific Director in 2014; he later served on Italy's COVID-19 task force, as an Associate Professor at Torino, and as an expert at Italy's Department of Digital Transformation. As of October 2026, he is Scientific Director of ISI Foundation and is interested in the social impact of data and artificial intelligence.

Now at: ISI Foundation and University of Turin
Works: 274
Citations: 13,456
h-index: 56
Badges: Founder
Wayfarer

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

Before 2008

Early research posts

Before 2008, he earns a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Perugia, works as a research scientist at the University of Michigan, and joins RIKEN's Frontier Research System.
By 2008

A fellowship in Rome

Before joining ISI Foundation in 2008, he joins Enrico Fermi Center in Rome as a fellow, affiliated with Sapienza University's Physics Department.
2008

Semantic communities from tags

In 2008, he and his coauthors show that a distance measure builds a weighted network of resources with a detectable community structure.
2008

Founding SocioPatterns

In 2008, he helps found SocioPatterns, a collaboration that studies human and animal proximity networks with wearable sensors.
2010–2014

Data science leadership at ISI

From 2010, he leads ISI Foundation's first Data Science group and becomes its Scientific Director in 2014. SocioPatterns applies data science, network science, and machine learning to infectious-disease epidemiology.
2020–2023

Research and public service

In 2020 and 2021, he serves on the Italian Government's COVID-19 data task force. From 2020 to 2023, he serves as an Associate Professor in the University of Torino's Computer Science Department; in 2022, he works as an expert at Italy's Department of Digital Transformation.
2026

Modeling temporal networks

In 2026, he coauthors Modeling memory in time-respecting paths on temporal networks with Silvia Guerrini and Lorenzo Dall'Amico.
Since 2014

Scientific Director at ISI

Since 2014, he serves as Scientific Director of ISI Foundation and is interested in the social impact of data and artificial intelligence.