News + Events

Sending instantaneous messages across long distances, or quickly computing over ungodly amounts of data are just two possibilities that arise if we can design computers to exploit quantum uncertainty, entanglement, and measurement. In this SFI Community Lecture, scientist Christopher Monroe describes the architecture of a quantum computer based on individual atoms, suspended and isolated with electric fields, and individually addressed with laser beams.

October 13-16, graduate students can meet with leading scientists to learn about modeling and evaluating the future of human populations and their environments. Free tuition for accepted students. Apply before July 11, 2018.

An SFI workshop examines the key impediments to building machines that understand meaning, and how much understanding is necessary for artificially intelligent machines to approach human-level abilities in language, perception, and reasoning.

Two October meetings at SFI aim to dig into some of the trickiest questions about life, both here on Earth, and how we might recognize it elsewhere in the universe.

The Santa Fe Institute is accepting applications for its Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) summer internship program. Apply by January 7, 2019.

The autumn Applied Complexity Network meeting “Risk: Retrospective Lessons and Prospective Strategies,” explores what we have learned since the financial crisis of 2008.

In a two-part lecture series September 24 and 25, SFI Professor Cristopher Moore looked at two sides of computation — the mathematical structures that make problems easy or hard, and the growing debate about fairness in algorithmic predictions. The videos are now available.

Quantitative tools developed in math and physics to understand bifurcations in dynamical systems could help ecologists and biologists better understand — and predict — tipping points in animal societies.

Watch The Majesty of Music & Math, a multi-media collaboration between SFI's Cristopher Moore and The Santa Fe Symphony, and produced by New Mexico PBS.  

A new study suggests that defenses against extreme temperatures give E. coli bacteria an advantage in fending off certain drugs. 

The fourth bi-annual Postdocs in Complexity Conference at the Santa Fe Institute provides networking opportunities for early career researchers working on complex systems science, as well as special sessions from SFI faculty and other prominent speakers. This three-day conference will build on the themes of the previous three Postdocs in Complexity meetings, refining the structure to allow additional time to build community and focus on collaborations.

One of the first-movers in game theory, SFI External Professor Martin Shubik died August 22, 2018. He was 92 years old.

The Maya Working Group meets at SFI to discuss a new theme, “Being Maya,” which will focus on the cultural identity of the lowland Maya civilization.

The bane of the language-learner is a goldmine for linguists, cultural evolutionists, and computer scientists, a group of whom will meet at SFI Aug. 27–28, 2018. Given the messy state of linguistic affairs, they ask, is it possible to quantitatively encode “meaning” independent of any particular language?

It may seem that there isn't much cross-discussion between theoretical and empirical scientists, but a new cross-citation network analysis shows there is more overlap than many believe. 

An SFI Working Group examines the evidence of low-density Maya settlements and the challenge this poses to the idea that density increases with population.

SFI External Professor Mark Newman has updated his classic textbook on networks. Oxford University Press publishes Networks, second edition, in early September, 2018.

The notion that an attractive person is “out of your league” doesn’t often dissuade dating hopefuls – at least online. In fact, the majority of online daters seek out partners who are more desirable than themselves, suggests a new large-scale analysis published in Science Advances.

The Santa Fe Institute is looking for creative thinkers for the Omidyar and ASU-SFI Postdoctoral Fellowships. Apply before October 28.

In this SFI Community Lecture, science writer Sabine Hossenfelder explains what physicists mean when they say a theory is beautiful, what went wrong with their reliance on it, and how the field can move on. Watch her talk.