Integrative Science Improving Societies
Eduardo Salcedo-Albarán, Director
Philosopher, and Ms. in Political Science at the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá Colombia). Current Director of Vortex. By applying artificial intelligence, neuroscience and social networks analysis, he has researched in the areas of transnational organized crime, kidnapping, corruption, drug-trafficking and State Capture. Between 2004 and 2006 he served as advisor for the Colombian presidency in Colombia. He was also consultant and researcher in local chapters of Transparency International and public agencies. He has collaborated for SEED Magazine and for different books and magazines, as a researcher and activist on science and empirical knowledge. Professor in the areas of Evolution and Genetics, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, and Scientific Thought. Since 2010 he is a member of EDGE Foundation, Inc., which includes “some of the most interesting minds in the world”. His recent work on illegal social networks has been exhibited and discussed in galleries, workshops and media around the world.
Interested in:
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-Evolution, neuroscience and artificial intelligence applied to social sciences - Public policy - Social networks.
Some books:
La Captura y Reconfiguración Cooptada del Estado en Colombia [The Capture and Co-opted Reconfiguration of State in Colombia] (2008) (Co-author), La Mente Inorgánica [The Inorganic Mind] (2009) (Author), Illicit Networks Reconfiguring States.
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/ Full Cv (PDF) / Personal WEB) / Facebook / Twitter
VORTEX provides inputs for policy making under integrative science.
By integrating different areas of human knowledge we propose models for understanding and facing social challenges. Ensuring global security, demanding governmental efficiency, improving transparency and securing human rights are some of these challenges.
Andrea Kuszewski, Researcher
Researcher, Science Writer and Communicator
Education:
- Psychology, Southern Illinois University
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-Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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-Experimental Psychology-Cognitive Neuroscience, Case Western Reserve University
- Biomedical Art/Scientific and Medical Illustration, Cleveland Institute of Art
Interested in:
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-Creativity, Intelligence, and Exceptional Ability
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-Autism Spectrum Disorders
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-Sociopathy
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-X-Altruism
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-Emotion Regulation
Andrea is a Behavior Therapist and Consultant, treating children on the Autism Spectrum, specializing in Asperger’s Syndrome. She has worked as a research assistant in the field of psychology studying various topics including intelligence, fear conditioning, cognition, childhood anxiety, and emotion. She is an Affiliate Scholar of the IEET (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies), a Brain Awareness Fellow at the GGI (George Greenstein Institute), and on the Board of Advisors at BetterBio.
She is herself a fine artist, trained in various visual communication medium ranging from traditional drawing to digital painting, graphic design, and 3D modeling/animation for the medical and behavioral sciences, as well as educational science exhibit design and installation for museums.
Andrea is also a science writer and science communication activist. She blogs as The Rogue Neuron at Scientific Blogging, addressing a variety of scientific topics, but focuses mainly on cognitive neuroscience and psychology, creativity, and autism. She writes for her own scientific blog site. She has written papers on the genetics and neuroscience of creativity, and intelligence.
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Industrial engineer and Magister in Economics at the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), and Ph. D. in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, United States of America). Current Academic Director at Vortex. Visiting Scholar at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Teacher at the universities De los Andes and Nacional de Colombia. Visiting Scholar and Consultant at the InterAmerican Development Bank. Consultant at the United Nations Program for Development in Colombia, the National Planning Department and Ministries of Finance, Foreign Trade and Foreign Affairs in Colombia. At the present is the director of the National Process of Verification of Human, Social and Economic Rights of the forced displaced population in Colombia. He has authored more than 40 books and published numerous essays in specialized journals in Colombia and the United States, in topics like international migration and remittances, international trade and economic integration, foreign debt management, industrial development and international competitiveness, globalization, corruption and capture of State, and social exclusion.
Interested in:
international trade and economic integration, foreign debt management, industrial development and international competitiveness, globalization, corruption and State Capture, and social exclusion.
John P. Sullivan, Adjunct Researcher
Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies on Terrorism (CAST). He is a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. He was director of the National Terrorism Early Warning (TEW) Resource Center and co-founder of the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning (TEW) Group. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in government from the College of William and Mary and a Master of Arts in urban affairs and policy analysis from the New School for Social Research (Milano Graduate School).
Sullivan is co-editor of Countering Terrorism and WMD: Creating a Global Counter-Terrorism Network (Routledge, 2006), Global Biosecurity: Threats and Responses (Routledge, 2010). He is a member of the Research Group on Netwars and Peacenets at the Institut d'Etudes Mondiale at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris and a doctoral candidate at the Open University of Catalonia where he is researching the impact of transnational organized crime on sovereignty.
Marcela Tovar, Adjunct Researcher
PhD in Anthropology - New School for Social Research, (New York, US). Acting Director of Latin American and Latino Studies Queens College – City University of New York. Lecturer, Anthropology Department QC-CUNY. LASA Member.
Marcela Tovar-Restrepo (Colombia, Spain, U.S.) is Director (a) of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program and teaches in the Anthropology Department at Queens College (CUNY). Dr. Tovar-Restrepo also teaches at the Urban Studies Program at New School for Social Research. She obtained her PhD in Anthropology at the New School for Social Research (N.Y.) and her Master on Urban Development Planning at University College of London. She has served as international consultant mainstreaming cultural and gender rights into policy-making processes at different UN instances like the Commission of Sustainable Development (CSD) - DESA, UNDEF, IPU and the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues. She has also served as technical advisor and researcher for International cooperation agencies (GTZ, AECID), governments, social movements and NGOs in areas such as gender and ethnic diversity, environment and human rights and conflict. Marcela is Board member of Women Environmental and Development Organization (NY), and is part of the Advisory Council for the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding - Queens College- City University of New York
Luis Astorga, Adjunct Researcher
Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Paris I. He is a researcher at the Institute of Social Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico; coordinator of the UNESCO Chair “Economic and social transformations connected with the in- ternational drug problem”; member of the National System of Researchers (SNI) and the Mexican Academy of Sciences (AMC); Author of: Seguridad, traficantes y militares (Security, drug traffickers and the military), México, Tusquets, 2007; Drogas sin fronteras (Drugs without borders), México, Grijalbo, 2003; El siglo de las drogas (The drugs century), México, Plaza y Janés, 2005 (Espasa-Calpe, 1996); and Mitología del ‘narcotraficante’ en México (Drug trafficker’s mythology in Mexico), México, UNAM/Plaza y Valdés, 1995. He has also published chapters in books, and articles about drug trafficking in México in scientific journals from Mexico, The United States of America, Colombia, France, Italy, India, Great Britain and Belgium.
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Sonja Wolf holds a PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University [United Kingdom]. She has held post-doctoral fellowships at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México where she conducted research on street gangs and organised crime in Central America. She has worked as Human Rights Officer for the United Nations and as consultant on youth violence prevention and conflict analysis. Her publications have appeared in the Journal of Latin American Studies, Latin American Politics & Society, the Latin American Research Review and the Bulletin of Latin American Research. Dr. Wolf is also a columnist for the digital magazine Distintas Latitudes. Currently she is preparing a monograph on gang control in El Salvador. Her research focuses on security issues, particularly street gangs and drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America. She is available for consultancies, interviews and expert witness service in gang asylum cases.
Also find me in: Publications / Facebook / Twitter
Mailing Address:
Scientific Vortex Inc., 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2 #4000, Valley Cottage, NY 10989
Andrea M. Salcedo Albarán, assistant.
Research assistant and System information manager for network modeling.
Participated in projects for modeling criminal networks in Colombia and Mexico.
Diana Enriquez, Researcher
Student of Political Science at Yale University. She is currently developing a research about the participation of Colombian Cartels in local and national political campaigns, in the period 1970-2000. Diana also studies immigration and the history of immigrants in the United States.
Interested in: Informal economies, Mexican and Latinos living in the United States, Organized crime, political science.
Full CV (PDF)
