Nicolas Payette

Nicolas Payette serves as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) within Italy's National Research Council (CNR), where he has been affiliated with the Laboratory of Agent Based Social Simulation (LABSS) since early 2017.

He holds a PhD in Philosophy (2018) and integrates computer programming expertise with philosophical training to advance computational social science methodologies.

Payette specializes in constructing agent-based models for high-stakes security applications, particularly simulating recruitment dynamics in organized crime and terrorist networks through the EU Horizon 2020 PROTON project. His technical contributions include significant development work on the NetLogo platform and authorship of multiple NetLogo extensions, establishing him as a key toolbuilder for social simulation researchers. This dual focus on domain-specific modeling and infrastructure development defines his research trajectory.

As a core member of LABSS, Payette collaborates within CNR's interdisciplinary framework to translate complex social phenomena into computationally tractable models, with ongoing work emphasizing counter-radicalization strategies and network analysis techniques.