Chris Monterola

Dr. Christopher Monterola is a physicist, machine learning scientist, and technology advisor with leadership experience spanning academia, research, and applied innovation. He holds the Aboitiz Chair in Data Science at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), where he founded the Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (ASITE). As Principal Scientist and Executive Managing Director of the Analytics, Computing, and Complex Systems (ACCeSs) Lab, his core focus is on R&D and the development of data and AI products that address complex, high-stakes challenges across urban systems, public health, agriculture, finance, and beyond.

With over 150 internationally recognized journal publications and more than 100 invited talks, Dr. Monterola is consistently listed among the top 2% of scientists globally by Stanford University researchers — reflecting sustained impact across multiple scientific disciplines. A sought-after keynote speaker, he has addressed international conferences across Asia, Europe, and beyond, and has organized international symposia on AI, complexity science, and digital transformation.

His leadership at the ACCeSs Lab has driven multi-million-dollar initiatives addressing critical challenges in both the public and private sectors. He has advised senior government and industry stakeholders, including national regulators, multinational corporations, and major Philippine conglomerates, on AI strategy, data architecture, and responsible technology deployment. As an Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) — the highest recognition for scientists in the Philippines — he contributes to shaping national science and technology policy.

Current Positions

• Founding School Head, Professor, Aboitiz Chair in Data Science
  Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (SITE)
  Asian Institute of Management, Philippines 

• Founding Executive Managing Director and Principal Scientist
  Analytics, Computing, Complex Systems (ACCeSs) Lab
  Asian Institute of Management, Philippines 

• Founding Program Director
  Ph.D. in Data Science
  Asian Institute of Management, Philippines 

• Academician
  National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines (June 2020 - present)

Other Active Positions

• Founder and Non-Executive Director
  CorteX Innovations, Corp.

• Independent Director (November 2022 - July 2025)
  Xurpas, Inc. (PSE:X)

• International Advisory Board Member
  Center for Integrated STEM Inc.

• Policy Advisor
  DTI National AI Roadmap, Philippine Development Plan 2022-2028, Standing Committee member of EDCOM 2,
  Various enterprises and organizations on Digital Transformation

Previous Positions

• Senior Scientist and Capability Group Manager of the Complex Systems (CxSy) Capability Group, Computing Science Department, Institute of High-Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore (August 2013-August 2017)

• Principal Investigator/Scientific Director, Complex Systems Programme, A*STAR Urban Systems Initiative (2012-present)

• Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Complexity Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. (October 2015-2020)

• Associate Professor 7, National Institute of Physics, UP Diliman (2005-2012)

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden (2003-2005)

Research

His current research activities revolve around Machine Learning, Complex Systems, Deep Learning, Algorithmic Auditing, Computational Physics, Complex Networks, and General Forecasting. His previous research focused on the following fields: Landslide and Granular Dynamics, Biological Physics, Social Networks, Physics Education, Network Science, Public Opinion Research, Game Theory, Olfactory Systems, and Econophysics. The image below qualitatively shows the frequency distribution of the top 100 words used across all the abstracts of his publications in ISI-indexed journals. The word cloud was generated using Wordle.

Awards

• 2020 Elevated to the rank Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Philippines -  this is a lifetime membership,
  and Academicians are distinguished members of the National Academy of Science and Technology (abbreviated as NAST), the highest recognition and scientific advisory body of the Philippines.

• 2016 Country Prize Winner (Singapore), United Nations Global Pulse's The Big IDEAS Competition for Sustainable Cities and Urban Communities, June 2016. EF Legara, C Monterola, JF Valenzuela. [presentation]

• 2016  SMRT Most Innovative Solution Award, IHPC (from CxSy MA Ramli, V Jayaraman, G Lee, C Monterola), SMRT Vendors' Day, 30 March 2016. 

• 2014 ICCS Best Workshop Paper. N Othman, EF Legara, V Selvam, C Monterola, "Simulating Congestion Dynamics of Train Rapid Transit using Smart Card Data," International Conference on Computational Science, Cairns, Australia, 9-12 June 2014.

• 2013 IEEE SCALE Challenge. First Prize Winner. H Kasim, T Hung, EF Legara, C Monterola, G Lee, X Li, BS Lee, S Lu, L Wang, and V Jayaraman, "Scalable Complex System Modeling for Sustainable City," Sixth IEEE International Scalable Computing Challenge (SCALE 2013), Delft, Netherlands, 14-16 May 2013. 

• National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Outstanding Young Scientists (2011)

• NAST Talent Search for Young Scientist Awardee (2011)

• Conferred the scientist rank one by the University of the Philippines System (2009-present)

• University of the Philippines Centennial Professorial Chair (2008-2012)

• National Research Council of the Philippines (NCRP) Lifetime Achievement Award for Physics (2008)

• Most Outstanding PhD student / Dean`s Medallion / Batch Valedictorian (2002)

• Edgardo Gomez Award for Excellence in Dissertation Research (2002)

• Gawad Chanselor : Most Outstanding Graduate Student (Science & Technology Cluster) (2002)

• Gawad Chanselor: Best Published Research (2002)

• Most Outstanding Masteral Graduate student –Dean`s Medallion, Batch Valedictorian (1999)

Most Recent Scientific Publications

• J Noel, C Monterola, DS Tan, "Improving recommendation diversity without retraining from scratch." International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41060-024-00518-9

• MP Liponhay, A Valerio, C Monterola, "Time-delayed causal network analysis of meteorological variables and air pollutants in Baguio city," Journal of Atmospheric Pollution Research, 102095, 2024.

• M Dorosan, D Dailisan, JF Valenzuela, C Monterola, "Use of machine learning in understanding transport dynamics of land use and public transportation in a developing city," Cities 144, 104587, 2024.

• M Liponhay, A Valerio, G Fornan, C Alis, C Monterola, "Dynamic Assessment of Urban Carrying Capacity Load Number Using the Enhanced UCCLN Model," Sustainability 16 (1), 35, 2023.

•  M Liponhay, JF Valenzuela, M Dorosan, D Dailisan, C Monterola, "A Dynamic Urban Mobility Index from Clustering of Vehicle Speeds in a Tourist-Heavy City," Applied Sciences 13 (23), 12763, 2023.

• S Ibañez, C Monterola, "A Global Forecasting Approach to Large-Scale Crop Production Prediction with Time Series Transformers," Agriculture 13 (9), 1855, 2023.

• PJ Javier, MP Liponhay, CV Dajac, C Monterola, "Causal network inference in a dam system and its implications on feature selection for machine learning forecasting," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 604, 127893, 2022.

• HE Tan, J Hong Wen Oon, NB Othman, EF Legara, C Monterola, et al.,  "Quantifying the resilience of rapid transit systems: A composite index using a demand-weighted complex network model," PLoS one 17 (4), e0267222, 2022.

• D Dailisan, M Liponhay, C Alis, C Monterola, "Amenity counts significantly improve water consumption predictions," PloS one 17 (3), e0265771, 2022.

• JFB Valenzuela, EF Legara, CP Monterola, "Typology, network features and damage response in worldwide urban road systems," PLoS One 17 (3), e0264546, 2022.

[View complete list]

Past and Upcoming Event(s)

• Using Complex Systems to Advance Transport Planning

  • • Invited Speaker

    • Urban Sustainability R&D Congress

    • 29-30 June 2017

• Smart Data, Smart City: Insights on Creating Predictive Models of Urban Dynamics

  • • Keynote Speaker

    • Computing Science Congress

    • 16-18 March 2017

• On Urban Planning and Human Mobility

  • • Lecturer and part of the organising committee

    • 2017 NTU-Warwick Complex Systems Winter School

    • 09 -15 March 2017

• IEEE 18th International Symposium on High Assurance Systems Engineering (HASE2017)

  • • Main Organiser and Panel Moderator

    • IEEE International Symposium on HASE

    • 12-14 January 2017

• Mathematical and Computational Modeling of Biological System (MCMBS) 2016

  • • Invited Speaker

    • Bio-inspired Computing: Noise, Structure, and Emergence

    • 30 November – 02 December 2016​

• Accelerating the Way to a Smart Nation

  • • Main Organiser and Panel Moderator

    • IHPC Symposium 2016 

    • 28 March 2016

• Insights on Urban Mobility through Complexity Science

  • • Lecturer and part of the organising committee

    • 2016 NTU-Warwick Winter School

    • 10-16 March 2016

• A Modeling Perspective on How Interactions Shape the Complexity of City Dynamics

  • • Invited Speaker

    • ISC High Performance Conference 2015 (Frankfurt, Germany)

    • 12-16 July 2015

• Introduction to Complexity Science

  • • Lecturer

    • 2015 NTU-Warwick Winter School

    • 16-27 February 2015

• Transitions in Discrete Choice 2014

  • • Organiser Satellite Meeting

    • European Conference on Complex Systems

    • Lucca, Italy, 24 September, 2014