Hi there! You have found my (Benedikt V Meylahn) webpage. Until recently I was PhD student at the University of Amsterdam in the
Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics. My project was part of
the Networks consortium which spans four institutions across the Netherlands.
My promoter is Michel Mandjes and my co-promoter is Arnoud den Boer. I have submitted my dissertation and plan to defend it in November 2025.
RESEARCH
I am interested in modelling multi-agent systems, often with an element of learning. In my PhD we started with a project in institutional trust modelled with learning and social influence.
This grew into a project about opinion dynamics in which agents learn to how reliable their opinion is (how much evidence there is for it).
More recently we have started working on interpersonal trust: trust between agents, which we model as a coordination game.
Peer-reviewed research articles and conference proceedings:
- Meylahn, BV, 2025. `Multi-agent reinforcement learning in the all-or-nothing public goods game on networks.' In: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2025): 1492-1500 (arxiv.org, ifaamas.org)
- Meylahn, BV, De Turck, K & Mandjes, M, 2025. `Trust in society: A stochastic compartmental model,' Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 668: 130563. (arxiv.org, j.physa)
- Meylahn, BV & Meylahn, JM, 2024. `How social reinforcement learning can lead to metastable polarisation and the voter model.' PLoS ONE, 19(12): e0313951. (plos.org)
- Meylahn, BV & Searle, C, 2024. `Opinion dynamics beyond social influence.' Network Science, 12(4): 339-365. (cambridge.org)
- Meylahn, BV, den Boer, AV & Mandjes, M, 2024. `Interpersonal trust: Asymptotic analysis of a stochastic coordination game with multi-agent learning,' Chaos, 34(6): 063119. (aip.org)
- Meylahn, BV, den Boer, AV & Mandjes, M, 2024. `Trusting: Alone and together,' The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 48(4): 424–478. (tandfonline.com)
- Meylahn, BV & van Vuuren, JH, 2021. `The evolutionary spatial snowdrift game on a cycle: An asymptotic analysis,' Open Journal of Discrete Applied Mathematics, 4(3): 36-59. (PSIR.org)
Ongoing research projects:
- I am working on two projects about opinion dynamics with Frank Pijpers and Michel Mandjes.
I am open to start new collaborations; get in touch (contact details at the bottom). I would very much like to take some of the ideas from multi-agent learning, trust and opinion dynamics,
and see how/if they apply in the context of user choices. This could be about traffic users, climate actions, or voting behaviour for example.
TEACHING
Since I was a Masters student I have taught as teaching assistent for various courses at Stellenbosch University and later also at the University of Amsterdam. Here is an overview of the courses I have been involved in.
At the Stellenbosch University (2018-2021):
- Operations research 345, BEng (Industrial y3)
- Industrial programming 244, BEng (Industrial y2)
I have written a short, non-technical blog post on Game Theory (particularly the Trust Game)
and modelling human behaviour for The Networks Pages.
SHORT BIO
I was born in South Africa where I studied for a Bachelor and Master of Industrial Engineering (Stellenbosch University).
My final year research project (skripsie) was completed (in 2018) under the supervision of Dr Christa Searle.
We replicated and extended an agent-based simulation on (counter-)insurgency. Then I completed (in 2021) a research Master of Industrial Engineering under the supervision
of Prof Jan H van Vuuren. We studied the evolutionary spatial snowdrift game on a cycle under imitation based learning.
During both my Bachelor and Master research projects I was a part of the Stellenbosch Unit for Operations Research in Engineering (SUnORE) research group.
In March 2021 I moved to Amsterdam to pursue a PhD with Michel Mandjes and Arnoud den Boer at the University of Amsterdam.
I have enjoyed singing in various ensembles during my studies (Kraaie van Wilgenhof, Stellenbosch University Chamber Choir, Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam) Kamerkoor, and Studentenkoor Amsterdam). Recently I have discovered the wonderful world of tabletop role-playing games.
The banner at the top depicts my dog Ada (named after Ada Lovelace) on a beach in South Africa. She's a good dog.
CONTACT
Ben Meylahn, Korteweg-de Vries Institute, University of Amsterdam
Mailing address: Ben Meylahn, Science Park 105-107, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
e-mail: b dot v dot meylahn at uva dot nl