Dr. Cortés' research interests are in the area of systems and control, cooperative control, network optimization, distributed decision making and autonomy, systems orchestration, network science and complex systems, game theory, multi-agent coordination in robotics, transportation, power systems, and neuroscience, nonsmooth analysis, and geometric mechanics. His research is characterized by its interdisciplinary character and the connections between solid theoretical foundations, development of computational methods, and applications. His research program seeks to unveil the science and engineering that explains and enhances the operation of network systems. The ultimate aim is to understand the mechanisms that make complex networks function they way they do, and to use this knowledge to develop systematic methods to design better networks.