Pedro Manrique Charry

Dr. Pedro D. Manrique joined Florida Polytechnic University in the fall of 2024 as a visiting faculty member. Shortly after, he was appointed full-time assistant professor of physics beginning in the spring of 2025. He is a theoretical and computational physicist with expertise in theoretical and computational characterization of complex adaptive systems.

Prior to joining Florida Poly, he held a research scientist position at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., from 2021 to 2024. While at GWU, he developed statistical physics theories to study protein aggregation in heterogeneous biomolecular environments, online distrust networks, and cohesive behavior in cyber physical systems.

From 2019 to 2021, Manrique was a postdoctoral fellow in the theoretical division of Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM, where he focused on multi-scale modeling of biosystems within the context of antimicrobial resistance and a network modeling approach aimed at predicting protein disruption. He also held a postdoctoral position in the Department of Physics at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, from 2016 to 2019. While there, he worked on game theories and agent-based models with applications in taxis in simple organisms, bacterial photosynthesis, social networks, and contagion phenomena. He has published in top-tier scientific journals including Nature, Science, Science Advances and Physical Review Letters.

Outside work, Manrique enjoys spending time with family and friends. He is a passionate obstacle course racing athlete and a choral singer with special affinity for Gregorian chants. One of his favorite activities is drawing families of dragons and penguins with his children and nieces.

Awards and Honors

• Editors’ Suggestion Recognition. Letter Article: “Shockwavelike behavior across social media”. American Physical Society Editorial Office. Hauppauge, New York (2023)
• Spot Award. Project: “Cell-to-Cell Heterogeneity in Antibiotic Resistance: Accounting for Efflux Pumps and Impermeability”. Associate Laboratory Director for Simulation and Computation (ALDSC). Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos, New Mexico (2021)
• Los Alamos National Laboratory Director’s Fellowship Award. “Multiscale Quantitative Description of Drug Resistance Mechanisms in Bacterial Systems” Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos, New Mexico (2019 – 2021)
• International Max Plank Research School for Dynamical Processes in Atoms, Molecules, and Solids Fellowship Award, Max Plank Institute, Dresden, Germany (2009 – 2010)
• Proyecto “Semilla” Fellowship Award. “Non-Markovian thermalization for few qubit system” Department of Physics, University of Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia (2007)

Education

• Ph.D. in Physics, University of Miami, 2015
• M.S. in Physics, University of Los Andes, 2009
• B.S. in Physics, University of Los Andes, 2007

Expertise

• Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics
• Complex Adaptive Systems
• Biophysics
• Networks
• Data Science

Professional Activities

• Review Editor Board member of Frontiers in Physics, 2023-current
• Review Editor Board member of Frontiers in Complex Systems Theory, 2023-current
• Guest editor MDPI Computation: Special Issue “Computational Social Sciences and Complex Systems”, 2022-current
• Guest editor MDPI Entropy: Special Issue “Non-Equilibrium Physics and Its Interdisciplinary Applications”, 2024-current

Select Publications

1. P.D. Manrique, F. Huo, S. El Oud, N. F. Johnson. (2024) “Non-equilibrium physics of multi-species assembly applied to fibrils inhibition in biomolecular condensates and growth of online distrust”. Scientific Reports, 14, 21911, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-72538-1
2. P.D. Manrique, et al. I. V. Leus, C. A. Lopez, J. Mehla, G. Malloci, S. Gervasoni, A. V. Vargiu, R. Kinthada, L. Herndon, N. W. Hengartner, J. K. Walker, V. V. Rybenkov, P. Ruggerone, H. I. Zgurskaya, S. Gnanakaran. (2024) “Predicting Permeation of compounds across the outer membrane of P. aeruginosa using molecular descriptors”, Communications Chemistry, 7, 84. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-024-01161-y
3. P.D. Manrique, F. Huo, S. El Oud, M Zheng, L. Illari, N.F. Johnson. (2023) “Shockwavelike behavior across social media”. Physical Review Letters, 130, 237401. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.237401
4. P.D. Manrique, S. Chakraborty, R. Henderson, R. J. Edwards, R. Mansbach, K. Nguyen, V. Stalls, C. Saunders, K. Mansouri, P. Acharya, B. Korber, S. Gnanakaran. (2023) “Network analysis uncovers the communication structure of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein identifying sites for immunogen design”. iScience, 26, 1. 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105855
5. N.F. Johnson, N. Velasquez, N. Johnson Restrepo, R. Leahy, N. Gabriel, S. El Oud, M. Zheng, P. Manrique, S. Wuchty, Y. Lupu. (2020) “The online competition between pro- and anti-vaccination views”. Nature, 582, 230-233 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2281-1
6. P.D. Manrique, M. Klein, Y Li, C. Xu, P.M. Hui, N.F. Johnson. (2019) “Getting closer to the goal by being less capable”. Science Advances, 5, eaau5902 10.1126/sciadv.aau5902
7. P.D. Manrique, M. Zheng, Z. Cao, E.M. Restrepo, N.F. Johnson. (2018) “Generalized gelation theory describes onset of online extremist support”. Physical Review Letters, 121 048301, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.048301
8. P. Manrique, Z. Cao, A. Gabriel, J. Horgan, P. Gill, H. Qi, E.M. Restrepo, D. Johnson, S. Wuchty, C. Song, N. Johnson. (2016) “Women’s connectivity in extreme networks”. Science Advances, 2, e1501742 DOI:10.1126/sciadv.1501742
9. N.F. Johnson, M. Zheng, Y. Vorobyeva, A. Gabriel, H. Qi, N. Velásquez, P. Manrique, D. Johnson, E. Restrepo, C. Song, S. Wuchty. (2016) “New ecology of adversarial aggregates: ISIS and beyond”. Science, 352, 1459-1463, DOI:10.1126/science.aaf0675
10. P.D. Manrique, F. Rodríguez, L. Quiroga, N.F. Johnson. (2015) “Nonequilibrium quantum systems: divergence between global and local descriptions”. Advances in Condensed Matter Physics, 615727,  https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/615727