Mission
The Santa Fe Institute is a transdisciplinary research community that expands the boundaries of scientific understanding. Its aim is to discover, comprehend, and communicate the common fundamental principles in complex physical, computational, biological, and social systems that underlie many of the most profound problems facing science and society today.
Vision
Many of society’s most pressing problems fall far from the confines of disciplinary research. Complex problems require novel ideas that result from thinking about non-equilibrium and highly connected complex adaptive systems. We are dedicated to developing advanced concepts and methods for these problems, and pursuing solutions at the interfaces between fields through wide-ranging collaborations, conversations, and educational programs. SFI combines expertise in quantitative theory and model building with a community and infrastructure able to support cutting-edge, distributed and team-based science. At the Santa Fe Institute, we are asking big questions that matter to science and society.
The popular Science On Screen series returns to Santa Fe Wednesday evening, May 8, with Simon DeDeo and the 1992 cult hacker film Sneakers.
SFI's 2013 Community Lecture series debuted March 14 with UC-Boulder's Leysia Palen describing how victims, observers, and “citizen-responders” are using modern technology to participate in disaster response. Watch ...
Speaking at SFI yesterday, noted climate scientist James Hansen told an overflow crowd that efforts to stem climate change will be ineffectual as long as fossil fuels remain the cheapest ...
SFI's crowdfunding campaign has reached its goal. The resulting research will help scientists preserve the threatened landscapes on which indigenous human groups depend.
The 2012 Science On Screen series in Santa Fe wrapped up December 13 to a full house, with "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and Murray Gell-Mann's distinctive insight and ...