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’ (TSE) Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the head of the Center for Collective Learning a multidisciplinary research laboratory with offices at Institute for Advanced Study (IAST) at TSE and the Corvinus Institute of Advanced Studies (CIAS) 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 public data distribution and economic development strategy. 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 four books: Why Information Grows (Basic Books, 2015), The Atlas of Economic Complexity (MIT Press, 2014), and How Humans Judge Machines (MIT Press, 2021). His latest book, The Infinite Alphabet (Penguin-Random House, 2025) was published in November of 2025.
TIMELINE
Primary Appointments:
2024-Present: Toulouse School of Economics, Full Professor
2023-Present: Corvinus University of Budapest, Head of Research
2015-2019: MIT, Associate Professor
2010-2014: MIT, Assistant Professor
2010-2019: MIT, Director, Collective Learning Group
Visiting & Temporary Appointments:
2019-2026: University of Manchester, Honorary Professor (AMBS)
2023-2024: Toulouse School of Economics, Visiting Professor
2019-2023: University of Toulouse, ANITI Chair
2019-2023: Harvard, Visiting Professor, SEAS
2010-2013: Harvard, Faculty Associate, HKS
2008-2010: Harvard, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, HKS 2008-201
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