About
👋 Hi! I'm Wesley Cota, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics at the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) and a Ph.D. in Physics. I investigate both the fundamental aspects of epidemic spreading and their real-world applications. My research also extends to understanding information propagation and the dynamics of echo chambers on social media.
🐧 I also have hands-on expertise in web server administration and scientific computational cluster management, all within the Linux ecosystem. I have experience in High-Performance Computing using Fortran and data science and analysis with Python, among other skills that bridge scientific research with software development.
🛠️ Some skills: High-Performance Computing (Fortran, C), Python (numpy, scipy, pandas, geopandas, sympy, and others), data mining and analysis, GIS, LaTeX, Bash, Linux, Docker, HTML, CSS, Javascript, NodeJS, NextJS, SQL, APIs.
Publications
[19]Quantifying information gaps and the coupled dynamics of media and public agendas in social networks#
2026
Submitted to Journal of Computational Social Science
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Physical Review E 113, 044308 (2026)
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Data: zenodo.17612065 (https://zenodo.org/records/17612065)
@article{silva2026impacts, title = {Impacts of bridging nodes on the epidemic activation mechanisms}, author = {Silva, Jos{\'e} Carlos M. and Silva, Diogo H. and Cota, Wesley and Rodrigues, Francisco A. and Ferreira, Silvio C.}, journal = {Physical Review E}, volume = {113}, number = {4}, pages = {044308}, year = {2026}, doi = {10.1103/rlr4-w2kt}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1103/rlr4-w2kt} }[16]Efficient Gillespie algorithms for spreading phenomena in large and heterogeneous higher-order networks#
Featured2026
Nature Communications 17, 8665 (2026)Open Access
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[15]Government inaction on COVID-19 vaccines contributes to the persistence of childism in Brazil#
2022
The Lancet Regional Health - Americas 2022;13: 100346Open Access
@article{barberia2022government, title = {Government inaction on {COVID}-19 vaccines contributes to the persistence of childism in {Brazil}}, author = {Barberia, Lorena G. and Boing, Alexandra and Santana, Luciana and Cota, Wesley and Bastos, Leonardo S.}, journal = {The Lancet Regional Health - Americas}, volume = {13}, pages = {100346}, year = {2022}, doi = {10.1016/j.lana.2022.100346}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100346} }Annalen der Physik, 2100482 (2022)Open Access
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[13]Effects of infection fatality ratio and social contact matrices on vaccine prioritization strategies#
2022
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Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 163 112520 (2022)
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[11]Infectious disease dynamics in metapopulations with heterogeneous transmission and recurrent mobility#
2021
New Journal of Physics 23 073019 (2021)Open Access, video abstract available
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Tese (Doutorado em Física) - Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa. 2020Open Access
More information: https://wcota.me/p/thesis | Adviser: Silvio C. Ferreira | Co-adviser: Jesús Gómez-Gardeñes
@phdthesis{cota2020thesis, title = {Spreading phenomena on complex networks and social systems}, author = {Cota, Wesley}, school = {Universidade Federal de Vi{\c{c}}osa}, year = {2020}, month = {September}, type = {Doctoral Thesis}, address = {Vi{\c{c}}osa, MG, Brazil}, url = {https://wcota.me/p/thesis} }[10]Outbreak diversity in epidemic waves propagating through distinct geographical scales#
Featured2020
Phys. Rev. Research 2, 043306 (2020)Open Access
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Other version: medRxiv 2020.05.06.20093492 (2020)
In Portuguese: Modelagem do avanço da COVID-19 no interior do Brasil (https://covidbr.github.io/pub/1)
@article{costa2020outbreak, title = {Outbreak diversity in epidemic waves propagating through distinct geographical scales}, author = {Costa, Guilherme S. and Cota, Wesley and Ferreira, Silvio C.}, journal = {Physical Review Research}, volume = {2}, number = {4}, pages = {043306}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.043306}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.043306} }[9]Monitoring the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Brazil at municipal and federative units level#
2020
SciELOPreprints:362 (2020)Open Access, description of the data
Interactive page: https://covid19br.wcota.me/
@article{cota2020monitoring, title = {Monitoring the number of {COVID}-19 cases and deaths in {Brazil} at municipal and federative units level}, author = {Cota, Wesley}, journal = {SciELO Preprints}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1590/SciELOPreprints.362}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.362} }[8]Modeling the spatiotemporal epidemic spreading of COVID-19 and the impact of mobility and social distancing interventions#
Featured2020
Physical Review X 10, 041055 (2020)Open Access
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Other version: medRxiv 2020.04.06.20054320 (2020)
medRxiv 2020.03.21.20040022Open Access
Download paper: https://covid-19-risk.github.io/map/model.pdf
@article{arenas2020mathematical, title = {A mathematical model for the spatiotemporal epidemic spreading of {COVID}-19}, author = {Arenas, Alex and Cota, Wesley and G{\'o}mez-Garde{\~n}es, Jes{\'u}s and G{\'o}mez, S{\'e}rgio and Granell, Clara and Matamalas, Joan T. and Soriano-Pa{\~n}os, David and Steinegger, Benjamin}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1101/2020.03.21.20040022}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.21.20040022} }[6]Spectral properties and the accuracy of mean-field approaches for epidemics on correlated networks#
2019
Phys. Rev. Research 1, 033024 (2019)Open Access
@article{silva2019spectral, title = {Spectral properties and the accuracy of mean-field approaches for epidemics on correlated networks}, author = {Silva, Diogo H. and Ferreira, Silvio C. and Cota, Wesley and Pastor-Satorras, Romualdo and Castellano, Claudio}, journal = {Physical Review Research}, volume = {1}, number = {3}, pages = {033024}, year = {2019}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevResearch.1.033024}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.1.033024} }[5]Quantifying echo chamber effects in information spreading over political communication networks#
Featured2019
EPJ Data Science 8, 35 (2019)Open Access
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@article{cota2018robustness,
title = {Robustness and fragility of the susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic models on complex networks},
author = {Cota, Wesley and Mata, Ang{\'e}lica S. and Ferreira, Silvio C.},
journal = {Physical Review E},
volume = {98},
number = {1},
pages = {012310},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevE.98.012310},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.98.012310}
}
Scientific Reports 8:9144 (2018)Open Access
@article{cota2018griffiths, title = {Griffiths phases in infinite-dimensional, non-hierarchical modular networks}, author = {Cota, Wesley and {\'O}dor, G{\'e}za and Ferreira, Silvio C.}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {8}, number = {1}, pages = {9144}, year = {2018}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-27506-x}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27506-x} }@article{cota2017optimized,
title = {Optimized Gillespie algorithms for the simulation of Markovian epidemic processes on large and heterogeneous networks},
author = {Cota, Wesley and Ferreira, Silvio C.},
journal = {Computer Physics Communications},
volume = {219},
pages = {303--312},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1016/j.cpc.2017.06.007},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2017.06.007}
}
@article{cota2016griffiths,
title = {Griffiths effects of the susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic model on random power-law networks},
author = {Cota, Wesley and Ferreira, Silvio C. and {\'O}dor, G{\'e}za},
journal = {Physical Review E},
volume = {93},
number = {3},
pages = {032322},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevE.93.032322},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.93.032322}
}
Collaboration Network
Interactive co-authorship network extracted from scientific articles.
27 Authors83 Ties18 Articles
Wesley CotaCo-author (Profile link)Co-authorLine thickness = shared papers
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