Santa Fe Institute

Events News

Live on Twitter: Follow the complexity economics rethink live this week
May 14, 2012 -

The economics status quo isn't working; it's time for a rethink. SFI and the Krasnow Institute present "The Science of Complexity: Understanding the Global Financial Crisis" May 16-18 ...

Video - Rebecca Goldstein lecture on appealing to intuitions: Why we can't get along without them
April 16, 2012 -

In an SFI Community Lecture on April 9 in Santa Fe, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein considered intuition as an essential part of our moral and philosophical thinking. Watch the video here.

Video: What Computers Teach Us About Being Human
March 22, 2012 -

In a February community lecture, Brian Christian shared his experiences as a "confederate" in an annual man vs. computer "Turing Test," offering insights on ways computers are reshaping what it ...

2012 at SFI: Asking big questions that matter
Jan. 3, 2012 -

SFI President Jerry Sabloff tells readers of the Santa Fe New Mexican what the Institute does, and why 2012 is a year for asking big questions at SFI.

Audio: 'Science symphony’ combines Bach and brain science
Nov. 3, 2011 -

On Sunday, October 30, in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Institute and the Santa Fe Symphony collaborated to produce a unique concert event exploring the interface between music and science ...

More News

Current and Upcoming Events - May 22, 2012

  • * SFI community lectures are free, open, & accessible to the public.
  • * Seminars & colloquia are geared for scientists but free & open to the interested public.
  • * All other SFI events are by invitation only.

May 22, 2012

12:15 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Seminar

Peter Schuster (University of Vienna; SFI External Professor)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Doug Erwin

May 23, 2012

12:15 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Seminar

John Martin (Visiting Research Associate, School of Advanced Research; Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Linda Cordell

June 3, 2012

June 3, 2012 - Aug. 11, 2012
Program

SFI’s REU program provides an opportunity for young scientists from many disciplines to explore what a social science perspective brings to other fields and how traditionally quantitative disciplines can contribute to the social sciences. Each REU participant works with one or more SFI faculty mentors on a specific, mutually selected projects focusing on the computational properties of complex systems with particular, but not exclusive, emphasis on the social sciences.

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson
Saint John's College
June 3, 2012 - June 30, 2012
School

The Complex Systems Summer School offers an intensive four week introduction to complex behavior in mathematical, physical, living, and social systems for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the sciences and social sciences. The school is for participants who seek background and hands-on experience to help them prepare to conduct interdisciplinary research in areas related to complex systems.

The program consists of an intensive series of lectures, laboratories, and discussion sessions focusing on foundational ideas, tools, and current topics in complex systems research. These include nonlinear dynamics and pattern formation, scaling theory, information theory and computation theory, adaptation and evolution, network structure and dynamics, adaptive computation techniques, computer modeling tools and specific applications of these core topics to various disciplines. In addition, participants will formulate and carry out team projects related to topics covered in the program.

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson
June 3, 2012 - June 30, 2012
School

Purpose: Business Network

June 6, 2012

12:15 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Seminar

Joe Traub (Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University; External Professor, Santa Fe Institute)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Doug Erwin

June 12, 2012

12:15 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Seminar

Elhanan Borenstein (University of Washington; SFI External Professor)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Ginger Richardson

June 14, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Noyce Conference Room
Colloquium

Johan van Benthem (Institute for Logic, Language & Computation, University of Amsterdam)

SFI Host: Rogier Braakman

June 17, 2012

Saint John's College
June 17, 2012 - June 30, 2012
Program

The Santa Fe Institute is pleased to announce the 18th annual Graduate Workshop in Computational Social Science Modeling and Complexity. The workshop will bring together a group of advanced graduate students and a small faculty for an intensive two week study of computational social science modeling and complexity. The workshop will consist of lectures by faculty, special topic seminars by members of the Santa Fe Institute, and presentations of work in progress by graduate student participants. The primary goal of the summer workshop is to assist graduate students pursuing research agendas which includes a computational modeling component. A significant portion of the workshop will be devoted to analyzing and improving research being conducted by the graduate student participants.

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson
Saint John's College
June 17, 2012 - June 30, 2012
Program
SFI Host: John Miller and Scott Page

June 21, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Meeting

Post Doc Meeting, Organized by Jeremy Van Cleve and Laura Fortunato

June 26, 2012

12:15 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Seminar

Helmut Katzgraber (Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University)

SFI Host: Jon Machta

June 27, 2012

7:30 p.m.
James A. Little Theater
Community Lecture

Dan Hruschka, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Arizona State University; author Friendship:  Development, Ecology and Evolution of a Relationship, SFI Omidyar Fellow Alumnus.

Sponsored in memory of Kate Klein, from the Kate Klein Fund at the Santa Fe Community Foundation

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson

July 5, 2012

12:15 p.m.
Noyce Conference Room
Seminar

Didier Sornette (ETH Zurich)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Doug Erwin

July 8, 2012

July 8, 2012 - July 21, 2012
Program

Offered at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

For 26 years, the Santa Fe Institute has challenged and equipped the next generation’s brightest scholars to take on complex problems through schools, fellowships, and youth educational curricula serving students and educators of all ages and backgrounds. SFI Complexity Scholarship programs include instruction by, and interaction with, SFI scientists. Complexity scholars trained at the Santa Fe Institute are working to understand the theoretical foundations and patterns underlying the systems most critical to our future -- economies, ecosystems, conflict, disease, human social institutions, and the global condition.

For 2012 we are pleased to announce a novel immersion program for a select number of high school students from around the world, the Complexity and Modeling Program. Offered from July 8 to 21, 2012 at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, the Summer CAMP builds on a highly successful SFI program previously available only to local Santa Fe students; residential options at George Mason enable us to reach students throughout the United States.

This intensive two-week residential science Summer CAMP introduces participants to complexity science scholarship. Through individual projects, computer simulation activities, analysis of ecological data, lectures and seminars, along with related weekend activities, students conduct research in this cutting edge field. Days are made up of instruction, small working group sessions, and research time interleaved with sports and extra-curricular events.

The Summer CAMP broadens students’ scientific horizons, and accelerates both academic and personal development by immersing them in a supportive community of scholars, teaching them how to create and analyze computer models, and introducing them to the challenges and rewards of independent scientific research. The academic program is demanding: lectures and curricula in complexity science, collection and analysis of ecological data, mathematics, and computer programming are taught at the college level. Each student will receive a high-level of personal attention from program instructors. At the conclusion of the CAMP, students will present their work and, if appropriate, develop a plan for continuation throughout the school year.

More information about the Complexity and Modeling Program can be found on our wikifacebook page, and the 2011 CAMP blog.

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson

July 12, 2012

Noyce Conference Room
July 12, 2012 - July 14, 2012
Workshop

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Geoffrey West, Luis Bettencourt and Jose Lobo

July 17, 2012

12:15 p.m.
Noyce Conference Room
Seminar

Alaina Levine (National Geographic)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: John German

July 19, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Noyce Conference Room
Colloquium

Michael Batty (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Geoffrey West and Luis Bettencourt
4 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Meeting

Post Doc Meeting, Organized by Jeremy Van Cleve and Laura Fortunato

July 25, 2012

7:30 p.m.
James A. Little Theater
Community Lecture

Duncan Watts, Principal Research Scientist, Human Social Dynamics Group, Yahoo! Research; author, Everything Is Obvious Once You Know The Answer, and SFI Post-doctoral fellow alumnus.

Sponsored by the Peters Family Foundation

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson

Aug. 2, 2012

Aug. 6, 2012

Noyce Conference Room
Aug. 6, 2012 - Aug. 8, 2012
Workshop

SFI Host: Geoffrey West

Aug. 13, 2012

Noyce Conference Room
Aug. 13, 2012 - Aug. 17, 2012
Topical Meeting

Call for submissions:

COMBINING INFORMATION THEORY AND GAME THEORY

From August 13 - August 17 the Santa Fe Institute and Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos will jointly host a "Theme week" on combining information theory and game theory.

Game theory formalizes information using partitions of the set of possible joint values of the problem's random variables. In contrast, information theory formalizes information using functions of the joint probability distribution governing those random variables. The goal of this workshop is to use these two formalizations of information as a starting point to achieve a deeper understanding of the role of information in strategic situations.  A more detailed description can be found here.

The focus of the week will be tutorials, break-out sessions, and provocational talks. Only a few talks on current research will be given - most of the time will be spent in forming new collaborations, discussions, and generating grant applications. About 35 people will attend in all.

Confirmed attendees include:

Kenneth Arrow
Christopher Sims
Carl Bergstrom
Lawrence Blume
James Crutchfield
Doyne Farmer
Benjamin Golub
Olivier Gossner
Joseph Halpern
Peter Hammerstein
Michael Lachmann
Kevin Leyton-Brown
Van Savage
David Sherrington
Yoav Shoham
Joel Sobel
Charles Stevens
Naftali Tishby

***

Those interested in attending should please submit:

  i) What day of the week they were born;

  ii) A short abstract on material they could present if asked to (maximum of one page using 12 point font and double-spacing).

These materials should be sent to Ellie Vigil at ellie@lanl.gov by April 29. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

Early career researchers, including postdocs and even graduate students, are particularly encouraged to apply. We hope to help with the travel expenses of some attendees.

To minimize our logistical overhead, acknowledgement of receipt of application materials should not be expected, nor should an email informing applicants if we will not be able to offer them attendance. We hope to send out our initial email offers by June 15.

Sincerely,

David Wolpert
on behalf of the organizing and program committees:

Nils Bertschinger
Luis Bettencourt
Yu-Han Chang
Simon DeDeo
Rajiv Maheswaran
Echekhard Olbrich
Eric Smith

SFI Host: David Wolpert

Aug. 15, 2012

7:30 p.m.
James A. Little Theater
Community Lecture

Nathan Collins, Assistant Professor, political science, University of California at Irvine; SFI Omidyar Fellow alumnus.

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson

Aug. 16, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Meeting

Post Doc Meeting, Organized by Jeremy Van Cleve and Laura Fortunato

Aug. 25, 2012

Medium Conference Room
Aug. 25, 2012 - Aug. 26, 2012
Working Group

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: David Freidel, SFI & Washington University

Sept. 11, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Noyce Conference Room
Colloquium

Herbert Maschner (Anthropology Research Professor; Director, Idaho Museum of Natural History; Director, Center for Archaeology, Materials, and Applied Spectroscopy)

Purpose: Colloquium
SFI Host: Jeremy Sabloff

Sept. 12, 2012

12:15 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Seminar
Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Cris Moore
7:30 p.m.
James A. Little Theater
Community Lecture

Scott Ortman, Omidyar Fellow, Santa Fe Institute; Lightfoot Fellow, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson

Sept. 14, 2012

Sept. 14, 2012 - Sept. 16, 2012
Program

This two-and-a-half day course is an intensive tour of the sciences of complexity, a broad set of effort that seek to explain how large-scale complex, organized, and adaptive behavior can emerge from simple interactions among myriad individuals. This course, sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute, is specifically designed fro professionals, faculty, students and others who are curious to explore and apply this new transdisciplinary scientific approach.

This course will be taught by a group of Santa Fe Institute faculty and associates. The program has no prerequisites and requires no specific background in mathematics or science. Participants will be guided, via lectures and hands-on demonstrations, through major topics of complex systems science, including dynamics and chaos, networks, evolution and agent0based computer modeling, as well as the application of these areas to understanding complexity in biological, economic, social and technological systems. The course is aimed at participants who are interested in these topics but do not necessarily have any technical background. Examples of people who will particularly benefit from this course are managers and policy-makers in business, government, and non-profit organizations; industrial research and development staff; medical, social work, and education professionals; journalists; and university faculty and students in any area of science or social science.

More information about the course can be found on our wiki page.

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson

Sept. 17, 2012

Medium Conference Room
Sept. 17, 2012 - Sept. 18, 2012
Working Group

SFI Host: Jennifer Dunne

Sept. 20, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Meeting

Post Doc Meeting, Organized by Jeremy Van Cleve and Laura Fortunato

Sept. 26, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Noyce Conference Room
Colloquium

Martin Davis (Professor Emeritus, Courant-NYU; Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Cris Moore

Oct. 2, 2012

7:30 p.m.
James A. Little Theater
Oct. 2, 2012 - Oct. 4, 2012
Community Lecture

Robert May, Baron May of Oxford; Professor, Zoology, Oxford University and Imperial College; former president of Britain's Royal Society, and former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government

Sponsored by Diana MacArthur, Trustee, Santa Fe Institute

SFI Host: Ginger Richardson

Oct. 9, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Colloquium

Troy Day (Professor and Canada Research Chair (TII), Mathematical Biology, Queens University)

Purpose: Colloquium
SFI Host: Jeremy Van Cleve

Oct. 10, 2012

Oct. 18, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Meeting

Post Doc Meeting, Organized by Jeremy Van Cleve and Laura Fortunato

Nov. 1, 2012

Nov. 13, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Noyce Conference Room
Colloquium

Rob Wilson (Project Director, Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada; Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta)

Purpose: Research Collaboration
SFI Host: Simon DeDeo

Nov. 15, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Meeting

Post Doc Meeting, Organized by Jeremy Van Cleve and Laura Fortunato

Dec. 20, 2012

3:30 p.m.
Medium Conference Room
Meeting

Post Doc Meeting, Organized by Jeremy Van Cleve and Laura Fortunato

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