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Jacob Calvert

I’m interested in collective behavior, which I study using probability theory and data science. Lately, I’ve been working on a principle of nonequilibrium self-organization and investigating how the behavior of a collective depends on the number of its constituents.

I’m a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Data Engineering and Science at Georgia Tech. I’ll spend Spring 2025 as the Berlekamp postdoctoral fellow at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute in Berkeley, CA.

For details on my academic background and experience as a professional data scientist, see About. For more on my research, check out Papers or Posts.


A conjecture about harmonic measure

Given finite $A \subset \mathbb{Z}^2$, the harmonic measure of $x \in A$ is the probability that a simple random walk “from infinity” first visits $A$ at $x$. If $A$ has $n$ elements, what is the smallest positive harmonic measure that you can get?

Numerosity-driven phase transitions

This post discusses the intersection of some of my recent and forthcoming work in probability theory with studies of programmable matter and ant colonies.