Cesar Hidalgo

César A. Hidalgo built his academic foundation in the hard sciences, earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Notre Dame in the United States. This background in physics and systems thinking enabled him to later approach social and economic phenomena from an innovative perspective focused on information, complexity, and knowledge networks.

He is widely known for his pioneering work on the development of the Atlas of Economic Complexity. This innovative tool uses data science and visualization to illustrate and measure countries’ productive capacities and their development opportunities. His research demonstrated the intrinsic link between a nation’s sophisticated productive capacities and its long-term economic growth potential. This model has been crucial for governments and international organizations seeking to design more effective development policies based on productive diversification.

In the academic world, Hidalgo has been a key figure at the prestigious MIT Media Lab, where he founded and led the Macro Connections group. His research lies at the intersection of network science, economics, and data science, and has been published in numerous high-impact journals, including *Nature* and *Science*. In addition to his academic work, he is the author of influential books such as Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies, a work that explores how the ability to encode and transmit information is the underlying driver of economic growth and social complexity.

Hidalgo has also applied his vision of data science to the business world as a co-founder of Datawheel. The company specializes in creating advanced data visualization and business intelligence tools for governments and organizations. Datawheel helps transform large volumes of complex data into accessible and useful information for strategic decision-making.