In an online video interview, SFI President Jerry Sabloff says the language of mathematics has made it possible for researchers from half a dozen fields to contribute to fruitful new research of complex social phenomena.
"I think the most general advantages are that [mathematics] adds rigor to hypothesis testing in the field, but I think it also makes biology more readily applicable to other fields that are using similar or compatible kinds of mathematical modeling," he says.
Watch the 4-minute interview (February 8, 2012)
Sabloff summarizes the work of SFI's research to understand cities and urbanization and new quantitative work examining the emergence of ancient urban systems.
The interview followed a three-day February workshop hosted by the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) on modeling social complexity. NIMBioS focuses the talents of researchers from around the world to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries and take an integrative approach to link modeling and mathematics with the biological sciences in ways that address challenges associated with natural and human social systems.
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