Raquel Guimaraes is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at IIASA with support from the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). She is hosted by the Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA), Risk and Vulnerability (RISK), and World Population (POP) programs. Dr. Guimaraes is currently on sabbatical leave from her appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the Economics Department at the Federal University of Paraná (Brazil), where she carries out research on, as well as teaching, economic demography, development microeconomics and applied microeconometrics.

In her research at IIASA, Dr. Guimaraes aims to contribute to the extant literature and to policy-making by offering a case study from Brazil, examining whether and how individual exposure to floods did or not induce affected migration in a setting with intense urbanization, the city of Governador Valadares, in the State of Minas Gerais. To elucidate the role of vulnerability at the household-level in mediating the relationship between mobility and floods, she will rely on causal models and simulation analysis. Her study is aligned with and will have support from, the Brazilian Network for Research on Global Climate Change (Rede Clima), which is an important pillar in support of R&D activities of the Brazilian National Climate Change Plan.

Dr. Guimaraes graduated from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 2007 with degrees in economics. She completed an MA degree in International Comparative Education at Stanford University (2011) and earned a doctorate in demography from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in 2014.

I am an agent-based simulation modeler and social scientist living near Cambridge, UK.

In recent years, I have developed supply chain models for Durham University (Department of Anthropology), epidemiological models for the Covid-19 pandemic, and agent-based land-use models with Geography PhD students at Cambridge University.

Previously, I spent three years at Ludwig-Maximillians University, Munich, working on Human-Environment Relations and Sustainability, and over two and a half years at Surrey University, working on Innovation with Nigel Gilbert in the Centre for Research in Social Simulation (CRESS). The project at Surrey resulted in a book in 2014, “Simulating Innovation: Computer-based Tools for Rethinking Innovation”. My PhD topic, modeling human agents who energise or de-energise each other in social interactions, drew upon the work of sociologist Randall Collins. My multi-disciplinary background includes degrees in Operational Research (MSc) and Philosophy (BA/MA).

I got hooked on agent-based modeling and complexity science some time around 2000, via the work of Brian Arthur, Stuart Kauffman, Robert Axelrod and Duncan Watts (no relation!).

I am an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering with over two decades of experience in teaching, research, and supervision in data-driven decision making, operations research, and computational modeling. My research integrates Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), and Reinforcement Learning (RL) to support strategic decision systems in sustainability, investment, and industrial operations. My recent work explores human-centric and multi-actor systems, leveraging simulation-based optimization and AI-driven analytics to enhance resilience, efficiency, and sustainability in complex socio-technical environments. I have published extensively in international journals, reviewed over 75 manuscripts, and am an active member of INFORMS and the System Dynamics Society. My long-term goal is to bridge industrial systems modeling with intelligent decision support, aligning academic research with real-world sustainability and innovation challenges.

🔹 Experience
Associate Professor — Industrial Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila (2018 – Present)• Teach graduate and undergraduate courses in Operations Research, Data Mining, Advanced Statistics, System Simulation, and Soft Computing.• Conduct funded research in agent-based and reinforcement learning models for sustainable and data-driven decision systems.• Supervise doctoral students in decision analytics, multi-agent modeling, and MCDM applications.• Reviewer for international journals including Neural Computing and Applications, the Journal of Cleaner Production, Annals of Operations Research, Environment, Development and Sustainability, Energy for Sustainable Development, Scientific Reports, IEEE Access, Cleaner Energy Systems, Utilities Policy, and Sustainable Futures

🔹 Research Interests•
Data-Driven Decision Making• Agent-Based Modeling (ABM)• Reinforcement Learning (RL)• Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA / MAMCA)• Sustainable Supply Chains• System Dynamics; Simulation• E-Health and Humanitarian Systems

🔹 Selected Achievements•
30+ peer-reviewed publications; ~360+ citations• Reviewer for 75+ international journal papers• Completed Coursera Specializations in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Reinforcement Learning• 20+ years of experience integrating data science with sustainability modeling