FranciscoRichter

Research

I work on statistical methods for complex systems — models of how things grow, spread, and interact. My research connects three threads:

• Network science & causal inference — disentangling structure and cause in relational data, from ecological to social systems.
• Stochastic modeling & diversification dynamics — evolutionary processes on phylogenetic trees, missing-species inference, birth–death models.
• Statistical learning for science — methods that respect domain structure, scale, and uncertainty.

I'm a Scientific Collaborator and Lecturer at the Statistical Computing Laboratory at Università della Svizzera italiana. PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Groningen (2021); mathematical engineer from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (2013).

Currently working on

• A curated atlas of empirical phylogenies covering 600,000+ species, used to study diversification at scale.
• Generalizing diversity-dependent diversification models with missing-species inference.
• Neural causal regularization — methods for invariance and out-of-distribution generalization (joint with K. Rigana & E. C. Wit).

Get in touch

For research collaborations, postdoc opportunities, or any question — reach me at richtf@usi.ch.