Wilmer Leal promoted to research scientist

Wilmer Leal became a research scientist in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida in January 2026, working with the Nonlinear Controls and Robotics group.

He came to Florida as a postdoctoral researcher in Computer Science in January 2023, after a PhD in Computer Science at Leipzig University and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, and degrees in both mathematics and chemistry from the University of Pamplona. In the GATAS Lab he worked on categorical models of compositionality in chemistry — the question of what it means for chemical structure to compose, and what a category-theoretic account of it buys you.

His work now sits at the interface of category theory, dynamical systems and control. NCR is a group the lab already works closely with: Warren Dixon co-advises Austin Copeland with James Fairbanks.