Jácome Armas

Jácome "Jay" Armas is an Azorean theoretical physicist, science event producer and science communicator based in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. He is an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam and an affiliate associate professor at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. His research spans quantum gravity, higher‑dimensional black holes and branes, holography, and the hydrodynamics of soft and active matter; he has also worked on complex systems. and edited the interview volume Conversations on Quantum Gravity (Cambridge University Press, 2021). For his outreach work he received the Genius‑prisen of the Danish Association of Science Journalists and the 2023 Outreach Prize of the European Physical Society High‑Energy Physics Division.

Early life and education Armas is from the Azores. Local press in Faial has profiled him as a faialense recognised for achievements in physics and mathematics. He earned a Licenciatura in Engineering Physics from the University of Aveiro (2007), completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge (2008), received a PhD in theoretical physics from the Niels Bohr Institute (2012), and later a BA in Philosophy from KU Leuven (2017). and horizon geometries, and contributions to modern hydrodynamics, including magnetohydrodynamics, Carrollian fluids and fracton superfluids. He has also co‑authored work on odd viscoelastic responses in active matter, and in social cooperation.

Armas serves as research lead and coordinator of the Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena (DIEP), an interdisciplinary hub hosted at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) that connects physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science, logic, ecology to social sciences and economics.

Outreach and public engagement In 2010 Armas founded Science & Cocktails, a series that blends public science lectures with music/art performances and bespoke cocktails in order to present science in a more informal, less academic way. Originally, the events were formatted much like normal academic talks, and took place in a small cocktail bar run by Armas; since then, they have expanded to much larger events, with music, video, and a party-like atmosphere. The programme now runs in several cities (including Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen and Johannesburg).

Armas has moderated and participated in public‑science events, including the 2024 CERN panel "The case of the (still) mysterious universe", a public discussion on dark matter, symmetry, string theory and black holes. He has also given public talks, including a 2024 TEDx event in Amsterdam.

Major projects and grants In November 2024 Armas' consortium Emergence at all Scales was awarded an NWA–ORC grant of €7.1 million by the NWO. The project, coordinated from UvA with partners across Dutch universities, investigates emergence across many orders of magnitude and includes outreach and education components.

Publications Books

Selected papers

Awards Outreach Prize, European Physical Society High‑Energy Physics Division (2023). Genius‑prisen (Genius Prize) for science communication (2014). AJIFA Prémio de Mérito (Faial, 2018).