Maurizio Porfiri (born Rome, Italy) is an engineering professor, mostly noted for his work with robotic fish and aquatic research.
[1] His research revolves around modeling and control of complex systems, with applications from mechanics to behavior, public health, and robotics.
[31][32] Porfiri's interdisciplinary research spans across animal and human behavior, control and dynamical systems theory, experimental and theoretical mechanics, network science, and robotics.
[44] In 2015, Porfiri's research in the directional information flow underlying collective animal behavior was paired with education and outreach activities in Brooklyn public schools.
[45] In recent years, Porfiri and his team developed robots that can contribute to mitigating the threat of invasive fish species by simulating natural predators.
He founded the citizen science platform Brooklyn Atlantis, which engaged local communities in the environmental monitoring and control of the polluted waters of the Gowanus Canal.
[59] With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, he leveraged network theory and high power computing to study the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions, vaccinations, and reopenings on the spread of the virus.
[60][61][62] In 2021, he was part of the research team that demonstrated the efficiency of the skeletal motifs of the deep-sea sponge Venus' flower basket, in terms of reduction of drag and of trapping time of fluid inside the body cavity, which is likely to promote selective filter feeding and sexual reproduction.