Postdocs in Complexity convene Global Summit

Fifty-six participants from six continents met at SFI for the 2024 Postdocs in Complexity Global Summit on September 23–26. Participants shared knowledge and skills, discussed challenges, deepened existing research collaborations, and developed new project ideas.

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Geoffrey West awarded “Freedom of the City of London”

SFI's Past President and Distinguished Shannan Professor Geoffrey West has received the Freedom of the City of London award. West was nominated by the Lord Mayor, Professor Michael Mainelli, for his work on scaling theory and its implications for the growth and dynamics of cities, companies, and the sustainability of the planet. West received the award at a ceremony in London’s Mansion House on October 28.

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SFI welcomes Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Aanjaneya Kumar

No matter how mundane or life-changing, the decisions we make are necessarily based on whatever limited information is available to us. If you’re weighing the risks of going outside during a pandemic, for example, you might base your decision on the news (which is updated only periodically) or whether you personally knew anybody who was sick (which is a small sample size.) SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Aanjaneya Kumar studies the science of making sound decisions based on limited information.

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MITRE and SFI reflect on decades-long relationship

SFI has consistently nurtured relationships with insightful practitioners and radical innovators. In robust discussions, these leaders have raised provoking questions and offered access to data, while SFI scientists have shared insights and tools to help business leaders tackle real-world problems. In this ACtioN-member profile, SFI reflects on a 30-year relationship with The MITRE Corporation, SFI's longest-standing ACtioN member.

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SFI welcomes Applied Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Sam Zhang

SFI Applied Complexity Fellow Sam Zhang wants to understand the causal mechanisms that drive outcomes — particularly the undesirable ones — in real-world complex social systems. How do the myriad social, institutional, and systemic forces we create sometimes collide to lead to inequalities and human-rights injustices?

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SFI welcomes Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Izabel Aguiar

Exploring complex social systems with a quantitative approach involves abstracting rich and nuanced data. Many tools for analyzing these data are then developed with assumptions that do not always reflect or incorporate more qualitative, or theoretical, observations of the systems in question. SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Izabel Aguiar contends that what is lost in the process of strict quantification — a qualitative understanding of both nuance and pattern — creates potential blind spots in scientific fields that aim to quantitatively study human interactions.

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New book: Kierkegaard’s Concept of the Interesting

In his new monograph, Kierkegaard’s Concept of the Interesting: The Aesthetic Gulf in “Either/Or” I, SFI Research Fellow Anthony Eagan guides readers through the first volume of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's "Either/Or."

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Building a theory of genetics

An October 7–9 workshop on “The Theory of Genetics: Articulating and Formalizing Theories of Biological Information” met as part of an ambitious project to develop an overarching theory for biology.

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Applications open for 2025 Journalism Fellowship

In the world of science journalism, a variety of fellowships offer opportunities to build skills, network, and find story ideas. Several programs invite journalists for a weekend, a month, or even a year. SFI’s Journalism Fellowship is one of a few that require fellows to put aside their journalism hats for an extended period to immerse themselves in learning. Applications for the 2025 CSSS Journalism Fellowship are open now through February 17, 2025.

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Andrea J. Liu receives 2025 Leo P. Kadanoff Prize

SFI External Professor Andrea J. Liu (University of Pennsylvania) is the recipient of the APS 2025 Leo P. Kadanoff Prize, the American Physical Society announced on October 15. Liu is a statistical physicist who studies condensed-matter physics and biophysics. This award recognizes her “broad contributions to the statistical mechanics of disordered systems and biological matter, including the theory of jamming” — the theory of rigidity in a large class of disordered systems. 

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Tanmoy Bhattacharya elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society

SFI External Professor Tanmoy Bhattacharya (Los Alamos National Laboratory) has been elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society. He is recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to computational and fundamental physics, especially to lattice QCD and computational biology, including computations of the QCD equation of state at finite temperature, the neutron electric dipole moment, and the timing of the spread of the modern HIV pandemic.

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How a witch-hunting manual & social networks helped ignite Europe’s witch craze

A new study in Theory and Society shows that the printing of witch-hunting manuals, particularly the Malleus Maleficarum in 1487, played a crucial role in spreading persecution across Europe. The study also highlights how trials in one city influenced others. This social influence — observing what neighbors were doing — played a key role in whether a city would adopt witch trials.

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SFI welcomes Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Marina Dubova

In the past, a person might be diagnosed with hysteria — a mental condition for which no useful treatment could be possible, because the diagnostic category was too broad and unfounded. The idea of “hysteria” limited our understanding of the human mind. SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Marina Dubova wants to challenge contemporary categories and methods in science that may limit rather than enhance our understanding of the world.

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SFI welcomes Applied Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Justin Weltz

Conventional approaches to the study of inequality focus on income and wealth, but an individual’s position within their economic networks is another important form of inequality. Efforts to understand these economic networks rely heavily on conventional surveying techniques, which often fall short when applied to populations defined by a stigmatized behavior or status. EPE and Applied Complexity Fellow Justin Weltz is developing new methods for gathering quality data about understudied groups. At SFI, he will focus on issues of policymaking and wealth inequality.

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Nautilus: Confessions of a Theoretical Physicist

"I remember the day when, at the age of 7, I realized that I wanted to figure out how reality worked," writes SFI External Professor Vijay Balasubramanian in this essay for Nautilus. "By the time I was 8, I was convinced that everything could be explained, and that I, personally, was going to do it." 

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Nautilus: The Reality Ouroboros

What is reality? And is there just one reality or many, perhaps infinitely many? In this essay first published in Nautilus magazine, SFI researchers David Krakauer and David Wolpert explore how scientists tend to think about reality. 

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