Thomas Gaskin
Department of Methodology & Data Science Institute
London School of Economics and Political Science
Deep learning
global migration
A novel and detailed view of international migration flows between all countries since 1990, estimated using deep learning on social, economic, and political covariates.
Neural parameter inference for large-scale multi-agent systems. (2025). PhD thesis. Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository. Deep learning four decades of human migration (2025). Under review at Nature; preprint available here. Populist dynamics in a globalised infosphere: a cross-language analysis (2025). Accepted at Humanities and Social Sciences Communications; preprint available here. Modelling global trade with optimal transport (2024). Under review at Nature Communications; preprint available here. Neural parameter inference and uncertainty quantification for epidemic forecasting (2024). PLoS ONE 19 (10), e0306704. Inferring networks from time series: a neural approach (2024). PNAS Nexus 3 (4). Neural parameter calibration for large-scale multi-agent systems (2023). PNAS 120 (7).
Education
- 2021–2025: PhD Mathematics, University of Cambridge
- 2019–2020: MSc Physics, Heidelberg University, Germany
- 2018–2019: One-year Mandarin language programme at Peking University, Beijing
- 2015–2018: BSc Mathematics, Heidelberg University
- 2014–2017: BSc Physics, Heidelberg University
Research positions
- 03/2024–08/2024: Visiting fellow at Zuse Institute, Berlin, Germany. Research on computational epidemiology and opinion dynamics.
- 11/2023–04/2024: Researcher at The Alan Turing Institute and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), working on demand headroom estimation for the UK low-voltage power grid.
- 09/2023–12/2023: Research assistant at Imperial College London. Research on inverse optimal transport.
- 01/2023–07/2023: Visiting researcher at Imperial College London. Research on applying machine-learning based parameter calibration and network inference
- 03/2021–08/2021: Visiting researcher in the Network Dynamics group, Institute of Theoretical Physics, TU Dresden. Research on Kronecker graphs and network generation algorithms.
- 11/2020–02/2021: Research assistant in the Complex and Chaotic Environmental Systems group, Institute of Environmental Physics, Heidelberg University. Tasks include coding and maintaining the Utopia framework (doi.org/10.21105/joss.02165) and building its website (utopia-project.org).
- 08–10/2016: Research intern at CERN-CMS, Geneva, and École Polytechnique, Paris, working on scale factors for Monte Carlo simulations of leptonic Higgs decays.
Scholarships
- 10/2021–07/2025 Cambridge University VC award: 4-year full scholarship for a PhD at the University of Cambridge.
- 03/2020–07/2020: Full scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation for research stay at TU Dresden.
- 08/2018–08/2019: Full scholarship from the German Academic Foundation and China Scholarship Council for a one-year language programme at Peking University, including language preparation training throughout the preceding year.
- 2017–2021: scholar of the German Academic Foundation
- 2016: full scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service for a three-month research internship at CERN/École Polytechnique de Paris.
2025
- ENUMATH 2025 minisymposium speaker; host: Andrea Zanoni & Grigorios Pavliotis.
- CRC Colloquium speaker, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, FU Berlin; host: Stefanie Winkelmann.
- Research visit to Peking University; host: Zhou Peijie.
- Invited speaker at HKU Journalism and Media Studies Center; host: Fu King-wa.
- Invited speaker at Computational Social Science Laboratory Seminar, University of Hong Kong.
- Research visit to University of Hong Kong; host: Guy Abel.
2024
- Roundtable on Trade Data and Supply Chain Resilience speaker, UK Department of Business and Trade (DBT). Hosts: Behzad Hezarkhani and Guven Demirel.
- March–August: visiting fellow at Zuse Institute, Berlin; hosts: Christof Schütte & Tim Conrad.
- New Directions for Stochastic Differential Equations and Machine Learning workshop speaker, ICMS Edinburgh.
2023
- January–June: Visiting fellow at Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London; host: Grigorios Pavliotis.
- Rough Paths Interest Group invited speaker.
- ICIAM 2023 minisymposium speaker; hosts: Fei Lu & Mauro Maggioni.
- Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction research talk.
- January: Research visit to Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Johns Hopkins University; host: Yannis Kevrekidis.
- Oct 2023–April 2024: Co-supervision of MSc and second-year BSc projects, Department of Mathematics, Imperial Collge London
- Jan–Mar 2022: Supervision for Statistical Physics, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
- Jan–Mar 2022: Supervision for Vector Calculus, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
- Oct–Dec 2021: Supervision for Algebraic Topology (Mathematics Tripos Part III course), DAMTP, University of Cambridge.