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NAYARA FONSECA

AI/ML Researcher | PhD in Theoretical Physics

nayara.focs@gmail.com | nayara.fonsecadesa@physics.ox.ac.uk​

Events/News

 

  • August/2025: Developing AI agents for scientific debate: starting with particle physics experimental strategy. Check out my evolving prototype with an Elo-based debating system on [GitHub].
     

  • 19–21 March/2025: I will participate in the Physics for AI workshop, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford.
     

  • 9–15 December/2024: I'm attending NeurIPS'24 in Vancouver. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to meet up!
     

  • 19 November/2024: I was an invited participant at the Physics for AI and AI for Physics: Landscaping Workshop at the Institute of Physics, London. See the community report [here].
     

  • 1 November/2024: I'm giving a talk at the AI Security Reading Group, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford.
     

  • 28-29 October/2024: I'm presenting a poster at the 'Beyond the symbols vs signals debate' meeting at The Royal Society (London).
     

  • September/2024: Our paper, An exactly solvable model for emergence and scaling laws, was accepted to NeurIPS 2024!

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RESEARCH

My current work spans from theoretical foundations in AI to practical applications in AI-assisted science. On the theoretical side, I study fundamental phenomena in deep learning such as emergence and scaling laws in neural networks (e.g., see [here] for our work on an exactly solvable model for emergence and scaling laws). On the applications side, I'm developing AI systems for scientific reasoning, including agents that can debate experimental strategies in particle physics, a framework designed to generalize across scientific domains (explore the project on [GitHub]).

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Previously, I worked at the intersection of particle physics and cosmology, exploring how the early universe informs our understanding of fundamental physics. See [here] for all publications.

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ABOUT ME

I work on fundamental AI research, focusing on understanding and predicting deep learning behavior through principled theoretical approaches, and developing AI systems for scientific reasoning. Previously, I held positions at The Alan Turing Institute and the University of Oxford. My research journey has taken me through IBM Research, ICTP in Trieste, DESY Theory Group in Hamburg, CTP at MIT, University of São Paulo, and University of Campinas.

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For more details, see my [CV].

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