Marcelo Byrro Ribeiro is Associate Professor of the Physics Institute, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro-UFRJ. He obtained a BSc in physics (1984) from the UFRJ, an MSc in astrophysics (1987) from the Observatório Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, and a PhD in relativistic cosmology (1992) from the Queen Mary University of London.
From 1992 to 1997 he carried out research and taught graduate courses at Observatório Nacional, but by 1997 he moved to the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, first as Visiting Professor (1997-1998), then as faculty, Lecturer (1998-2009) and Associate Professor (since 2009), where he has been ever since doing research and teaching graduate and undergraduate courses, except in 2001-2002 when he spent one year at the Vatican Observatory Research Group, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona.
During his PhD he worked under the supervision of Malcolm A. H. MacCallum (picture), developing research in relativistic cosmology. Upon returning to Brazil he continued his research in theoretical cosmology, but after his year in Tucson, Arizona, where he worked with William R. Stoeger (1943-2014), of the Vatican Observatory Group, his research developed a growing emphasis in observational cosmology. Lately he has expanded his research interests to include econophysics, complex systems dynamics and warp drive theory. He is also interested in philosophical aspects of modern science, particularly in topics related to cosmology, economics and econophysics.
He has published several research papers, reviews and book chapters on cosmology, econophysics and history and epistemology of science. He has also supervised several students and wrote a book on the econophysics of income distribution, published by Cambridge University Press.
He is a member of the following learned societies: