José Mendes (physicist)

José F. F. Mendes (born in Porto) is a Portuguese physicist (statistical physics) and professor of physics, best known for his work and contributions to the field of network theory. Graduated from University of Porto in 1987. He earned a PhD in March 1995 from the same University under the direction of Eduardo Lage, the title of the thesis was "Dynamics of spins systems". Mendes was head of the Physics Department from December 2004 to February 2010 at University of Aveiro. From October 2009 to February 2010 he was director of the Associated Laboratory of the Institute of Nanostructures, Nanomodelling and Nanofabrication (I3N)
From February 2010 to February 2018 served as vice rector for Research and Doctoral Studies at the University of Aveiro. Was the representative of the Portuguese universities in the Instituto do Petroleo e Gás (Galp) until 2018
He is currently the President of the Complex Systems Society (2021 ) and Director of the i3N Aveiro since September 2023 .

In 1983 he entered the University of Porto and graduated in physics in 1987. He gained his master's diploma in 1990. In 1987 he was an assistant in the Department of Physics, University of Porto. As a graduate student he visited as several universities as a researcher, including Oxford University, Geneva University, the City University of New York, and São Paulo. After finishing his Ph. D., he became an assistant professor in the same department. In 1996 he did a one year postdoctoral fellowship in Boston University under the supervision of Sid Redner. In 2002 did his "habilitation". In 2002, he became an associate professor at University of Aveiro and in 2005 professor. He was invited as professor by Henri Poincaré University (Nancy), Universidade Federal Minas Gerais (UFMG) and Visiting Researcher at Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (Pisa), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL Lausanne) and ETH Zurich (Zurich).

Mendes is known for his research on complex networks, and in particular for work on random graph theory, phase transitions, multiplex networks, percolation theory, and network epidemiology. He proposed with collaborators the idea of aging on networks, generalization of preferential attachment, pseudo fractal networks, hybrid phase transitions, explosive phase transition nature, spectral analysis, k core, and random walks on networks.