Bascompte’s research combines theory and the analysis of large data sets to address basic and applied problems in ecology. During the early stages of his research, he studied the spatial dimension of population and community dynamics. This provided novel approximations to attempt to answer unresolved questions in conservation biology such as how many patches are necessary for the persistence of a metapopulation. More recently, his application of network theory to the study of mutualisms has allowed him to identify general laws that determine the way in which species interactions shape biodiversity. Bascompte’s work has also had a clear influence on other fields such as in the study of systemic risk on finance and other man-made cooperative networks. Bascompte has been recognized by Thompson Reuters as one of the most influential scientists. He has an h-index of 63, has authored several highly cited papers, and regularly publishes his work in the top scientific journals including Nature (8 papers), Science (8 papers), and PNAS (11 papers).