From grasshoppers to human group behavior – interview with David Sumpter

Published: 15 January, 2014

On January 12th, Dagens Nyheter published an interview with David Sumpter, professor of applied mathematics.

David , who is currently working at both Uppsala University and the Institute for Futures Studies, explains in the interview why mathematics became interesting for him and how his research interests have been guided by the objective to make research useful for society.

At the Institute for Futures Studies David is conducting research about segregation. Perhaps surprisingly, his previous research at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford of grasshoppers and fish, has turned out to be very useful in studying this area. Humans, as animals, move in patterns, which can be studied with the same kind of models. Among the questions that David addresses together with researchers in sociology, demography and computer science, concern moving patterns, segregation in the housing market and the study of effects of different measures.

If you are a subscriber to DN.se you can read the complete article (in Swedish)