Bio
César A. Hidalgo is a Chilean-Spanish-American scholar known for his contributions to economic complexity and for his applied work on data visualization and artificial intelligence. Hidalgo is a tenured professor at the Toulouse School of Economics’ Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the head of the Center for Collective Learning a multidisciplinary research laboratory with offices in Toulouse and at Corvinus University of Budapest. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Alliance Manchester Business School of the University of Manchester.
Between 2010 and 2019 Hidalgo led MIT’s Collective Learning group and prior to that he was a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Hidalgo is also a founder of Datawheel, an award winning company specialized in the creation of data distribution and visualization systems. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Notre Dame and a Bachelor in Physics from Universidad Católica de Chile.
Hidalgo’s contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2018 Lagrange Prize and three Webby Awards. Hidalgo's has authored dozens of peer-reviewed papers and of three books: Why Information Grows (Basic Books, 2015), The Atlas of Economic Complexity (MIT Press, 2014), and How Humans Judge Machines (MIT Press, 2021). His next book, The Infinite Alphabet (Penguin-Random House, 2025) is scheduled for the summer of 2025.
TIMELINE:
2024-Today: Profesor, Toulouse School of Economics
2023-Today: Director, Center for Collective Learning & Research Head, Corvinus University of Budapest
2019-Today: Honorary Professor, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester,
2019-2023: Director, Center for Collective Learning, ANITI Chair, University of Toulouse
2019-2022: Visiting Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University
2015-2019: Director of Collective Learning Group, Associate Professor, MIT
2010-2014: Director of Collective Learning Group, Assistant Professor, MIT
2008-2010: Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
2004-2008: PhD Student in Physics, University of Notre Dame
1998-2003: Bachelor in Physics, Universidad Católica de Chile
PHOTOGRAPHS:
One-hour documentary filmed for Chilean Network Television in 2016 by La Ventana Cine y CNTV (in Spanish).
Individual Awards:
(2020) WSAI community's top 50 Innovators in 2020
(2019) Centennial Medal, University of Concepción
(2019) ChileMass Award
(2018) Lagrange Prize
(2017) Twenty Most Influential Latinos in Technology, C-NET
(2015) Technological Person of the Year, Chiletec
(2013) Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum
(2011) Bicentennial Medal of Science, Congress of Chile
(2008) Computational Science & Visualization Award, University of Notre Dame
(2007) Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Notre Dame
Project Awards
(2018) Webby Award: Best Use of Machine Learning: Streetchange,
(2018) Webby Award: Best Government and Civil Innovation Site: DataAfrica,
(2018) Indigo Design Award: DataChile
(2017) Webby Award: Best Government and Civil Innovation Site: DataUSA
(2016) Information is Beautiful Award: Best Commercial Project: DataUSA