Research News
Exploring Complexity in Science and Technology - the Santa Fe Institute Perspective
May 19 through May 21, 2010 in Portland Oregon. The course is an intensive, immersive ...
Technology: Under Microscope and Macroscope
Although we are all familiar with "technology," how many of us would try to define ...
Nathan Eagle, SFI Omidyar Fellow, talks about a new study that shows the emerging power ...
Math Professor Helps Uncover Art Fakes
Daniel Rockmore, SFI External Professor and Dartmouth College mathematics department Chair, has developed a technique ...
The Enemy of My Enemy
Steven Strogatz, SFI External Professor and Professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University, says it ...
Physics of Complex Systems
Research Summary
Fundamental physics is core area of research at SFI. It spans the principles of quantum and statistical mechanics, information theory, nonlinear dynamics and chaos, and discrete systems. These fields have provided techniques and approaches to problem solving that are useful across the sciences, and served as points of departure for the recognition of new principles. For instance, the application of self-organization to dynamical critical states arose from the study of granular systems, and agent-based simulation introduced a process-based generalization of Monte Carlo methods. Current and future SFI research in physics occupies four main areas: statistical physics with emphases on self-organized states and non-conventional statistics; foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum information and control; network structure and dynamics with a wide variety of applications; and scaling in social and biological systems. Significant progress has been made in understanding phenomena as varied as criticality in rainfall, modularity in complex networks, and metabolic scaling with body mass. Future directions in the physics of complex systems include universality in dissipative systems, quantum simulation and the feedback control of decoherence, and the structure of optimal distribution networks. The wide-ranging sciences brought together at SFI utilize more than merely existing methods and models from physics. Many dynamical properties in chemical, biological and engineered systems present new paradigms for organization that will expand the conceptual scope of physics.
Sub Topics
Key People
Dave Bacon
Ganesh Bagler
International Fellow
Research Fellow, Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Genetics, Berlin., Bioinformatics and Structural Proteomics Lab (OWL Lappe)
Sander (F.A.) Bais
External Professor
Professor, University of Amsterdam, Institute for Theoretical Physics
Luis Bettencourt
External Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Permanent Technical Staff Member [Research Scientist], Los Alamos National Laboratory, Theoretical Division
Tanmoy Bhattacharya
Professor, Santa Fe Institute
TSM, Los Alamos National Laboratory, T-8
Rogier Braakman
Postdoctoral Fellow, Santa Fe Institute
Graduate student, California Institute of Technology, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Elizabeth Bradley
External Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Professor, University of Colorado, Department of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dirk Brockmann
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Department of Nonlinear Dynamics
Javier Carrera
Instituto Biologia Molecular Celular de Plantas (EvolSysVir Lab), Genopole-Universite d'Evry Val d'E
James P. Crutchfield
External Professor
Director, Complexity Sciences Center, Professor of Physics, University of California, Davis, Complexity Sciences Center and Physics
Raissa D'Souza
External Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Professor, University of California, Davis, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering
Dave Feldman
Co-Director, Beijing Complex Systems Summer School
Professor of Physics and Mathematics, College of the Atlantic
Jose Manuel Gomez Soto
International Fellow
Researcher, La Salle University, Complex System Laboratory
Eric Heller
External Faculty
Professor of Chemistry and Physics, Harvard University, Physics
Alex Herman
Cesar A. Hidalgo
Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard University, Center for International Development and Harvard Kennedy School
Alfred Hübler
External Professor
Director, Center for Complex Systems Research and Professor, Physics, University of Illinois-Urbana
Arthur M. Jaffe
Landon T. Clay Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science, Harvard University
Sanjay Jain
External Professor
Professor, University of Delhi, Department of Physics and Astrophysics
Sabre Kais
External Faculty
Professor, Purdue University, Chemistry Department and Birck Nanotechnology Center
Kunihiko Kaneko
External Professor
Professor, University of Tokyo, Department of Pure and Applied Sciences
Stuart Kauffman
External Faculty
Visiting Distinguished Research Professor, University of Vermont, College of Medicine, Biochemistry CEMS, Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Supriya Krishnamurthy
External Professor
Professor, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Physics
Sune Lehmann
Simon A. Levin
Moffett Professor of Biology, Princeton University, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Fabrizio Lillo
Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Assistant Professor, University of Palermo, Economics/Biology
Seth Lloyd
External Professor
Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Jonathan Machta
External Professor
Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Physics
Stephan Mertens
External Professor
Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg, Theoretische Physik
Cristopher Moore
Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Professor of Computer Science/Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico
Andreea Munteanu
Visiting postdoc
Postdoctoral researcher, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, GRIB - Complex Systems Lab
Beata Oborny
Eckehard Olbrich
Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
Maya Paczuski
External Professor
Professor of Physics and Head of Complexity Science Group, University of Calgary
John Pepper
External Professor
Professor, University of Arizona, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ole Peters
David Pines
Co-Director, Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter; Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois-Urbana, Department of Physics
Steen Rasmussen
External Professor
Professor, Research Director and Center Leader, University of Southern Denmark, Self Organizing Systems
Sir Martin Rees
Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, Master of Trinity College, University of Cambridge
John Rundle
External Professor
Professor and Director, California Inst. for Hazard Research, University of California, Davis
Donald Saari
Distinguished Professor; Director, Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science, University of California-Irvine, Mathematics and Economics
Josep Sardanyes Cayuela
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, PRBB), Complex Systems Lab (GRIB)
Yonathan Schwarzkopf
Graduate Fellow
Graduate Student, California Institute of Technology, Physics
Cosma Shalizi
External Professor
Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Statistics Department
David Sherrington
External Professor
University of Oxford, Condensed Matter Theory Group; The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics
Daniel L. Stein
Dean of Science and Professor of Physics and Mathematics, New York University, Physics and Mathematics
Charles Stevens
External Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Professor and Vincent J. Coates Chair in Molecular Neurobiology, The Salk Institute, Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory
Steven Strogatz
External Professor
Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, Theoretical and Applied Mathematics
Stefan Thurner
External Professor
Head of Complex Systems Research Group, Medical University of Vienna
Jessika Trancik
Omidyar Fellow, Santa Fe Institute
Adjunct Associate Research Scholar, Earth Institute, Columbia University
Joseph Traub
External Professor
Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, Computer Science
Constantino Tsallis
External Professor
Brazilian Center for Physics Research and National Institute of Science and Tech
Douglas R. White
External Professor
Professor, Anthropology, University of California-Irvine, Institute of Mathematical Behavioral Science
