FRANCESCO DE PRETIS is postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health of the Marche Polytechnic University - a position funded by the European Research Council (ERC) within the international project "Philosophy of Pharmacology: Safety, Statistical Standards and Evidence Amalgamation" (GA n.639276).

Between the academic years 2013-2014 and 2016-2017, Dr. De Pretis worked as adjunct professor of Mathematics for Economics at the Link Campus University in Rome. In 2014, he was awarded the title of Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) in Mathematical Physics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, after having obtained in the same university a Degree (B.Sc.) and a Master Degree (M.Sc.) in Economics and Complex Systems.

In 2003, for an article on the German mathematician Riemann, he was awarded the "Scrivere la Scienza" writing prize, for which there were more than three thousands contestants. In 2005, he organized an exhibition entitled "Hamilton, the Quaternions and new Mechanics", in honor of the bicentennial of Sir William Rowan Hamilton's birth, which was shown in Genoa during the third annual "Festival della Scienza" and officially acknowledged by the Royal Irish Academy. In 2007, he was named Armenise-Harvard fellow and was invited to visit the Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA (USA).

To date, his research interests are linked to the study of complex systems and of new computational methods derived from statistical mechanics and applied to data analysis in the Economic and Social Sciences and Medical Sciences, with particular focus on the pharma-industry and the pharmacovigilance sector. Eventually, the ERC-funded research that Dr. De Pretis is conducting involves also the application of network analysis and game theory for modeling strategic interactions arising in pharmacological decisions, with particular emphasis to drugs’ approval process and pharmacovigilance.