Marco Colnaghi

Marco Colnaghi is a Research Associate at the Amsterdam Cooperation Lab (ACL), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and affiliated with the Social Psychology department. He holds a dual appointment with the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences and IBBA. His research focuses on agent-based modeling and evolutionary game theory to study cooperation evolution and fitness interdependence. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), where he explored evolutionary transitions like eukaryote origins and meiotic sex. Colnaghi trained as a physicist in Italy, then pursued advanced degrees in complex systems modeling and theoretical biology.

Education:

• PhD in Theoretical Biology and Mathematical Modelling (UCL)
• MRes in Modelling Biological Complexity (UCL)
• MSc in Complex Systems Modelling (King’s College London)
• BSc in Physics (University of Messina, Italy)

Research Interests: Evolutionary game theory, agent-based simulations, microbial ecology, and the evolutionary impact of deleterious mutations. His work bridges theoretical biology and social psychology to address cooperation mechanisms in asymmetric power dynamics.

Recent Articles: Colnaghi’s publications analyze cooperation destabilization in social dilemmas, antimicrobial resistance in bat microbiota, and protocell metabolic heredity limits. These studies highlight interdisciplinary approaches spanning evolutionary biology, ecology, and computational modeling.

Labs & Collaborations: Primary affiliation with the ACL (VU Amsterdam) and prior work in the Centre for Life’s Origins and Evolution (UCL). Collaborations span evolutionary theory and microbiological systems.