New England Complex Systems Institute

Organizing Committee

• Subject areas
• Program
  
• Location and accomodations
  
• Transportation
• Guide for proceedings preparation

Second International Conference on Complex Systems (October, 1998)

Host: New England Complex Systems Institute | necsi@necsi.org

With: Oxford University Press

Conference Chairman:

• Yaneer Bar-Yam

Executive Committee:

• Temple Smith - Boston University
• Sean Pidgeon - Oxford University Press

Co-Sponsors:

• Santa Fe Institute
• Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences
• College of Engineering, Boston University

Partial Support Provided by:

• National Science Foundation
• Coopers and Librand Consulting
• McKinsey and Company
• Addison-Wesley Longman
• John Benjamin Publishers

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

• Philip W. Anderson - Princeton University
• Kenneth J. Arrow - Stanford University
• Michel Baranger - MIT
• Per Bak - Niels Bohr Institute
• Charles H. Bennett - IBM
• William A. Brock - University of Wisconsin
• Charles R. Cantor - Boston University
• Noam A. Chomsky - MIT
• Leon Cooper - Brown University
• Daniel Dennett - Tufts University
• Irving Epstein - Brandeis University
• Michael S. Gazzaniga - Dartmouth College
• William Gelbart - Harvard University
• Murray Gell-Mann - CalTech / Santa Fe Institute
• Pierre-Gilles de Gennes - ESPCI
• Stephen Grossberg - Boston University
• Michael Hammer - Hammer & Co
• John Holland - University of Michigan
• John J. Hopfield - Princeton University
• Jerome Kagan - Harvard University
• Stuart A. Kauffman - Santa Fe Institute
• Chris Langton - Santa Fe Institute
• Roger Lewin - Harvard University
• Richard C. Lewontin - Harvard University
• Albert J. Libchaber - Rockefeller University
• Seth Lloyd - MIT
• Andrew W. Lo - MIT
• Daniel W. McShea - Duke University
• Marvin Minsky - MIT
• Harold J. Morowitz - George Mason University
• Alan Perelson - Los Alamos National Lab
• Claudio Rebbi - Boston Unversity
• Herbert A. Simon - Carnegie Mellon University
• Temple F. Smith - Boston University
• H. Eugene Stanley - Boston University
• John Sterman - MIT
• James H. Stock - Harvard University
• Gerald J. Sussman - MIT
• Edward O. Wilson - Harvard University
• Shuguang Zhang - MIT

There has been a strong expression of interest in response to our first conference announcement. Given the many disciplines whose current research involves the study of complex systems, we are planning a conference with two major aims: first, to investigate those properties or characteristics that appear to be common to the very different complex systems now under study; and second, to encourage cross fertilization among the many disciplines involved.

SUBJECT AREAS: UNIFYING THEMES IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Sessions will be structured around both themes and systems.

The themes are:

EMERGENCE, STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION: substructure, the relationship of component to collective behavior, the relationship of internal structure to external influence.

INFORMATICS: structuring, storing, accessing, and distributing information describing complex systems.

COMPLEXITY: characterizing the amount of information necessary to describe complex systems, and the dynamics of this information.

DYNAMICS: time series analysis and prediction, chaos, temporal correlations, the time scale of dynamic processes.

SELF-ORGANIZATION: pattern formation, evolution, development and adaptation.

The system categories are:

FUNDAMENTALS, PHYSICAL & CHEMICAL SYSTEMS: spatio-temporal patterns and chaos, fractals, dynamic scaling, non-equilibrium processes, hydrodynamics, glasses, non-linear chemical dynamics, complex fluids, molecular self-organization, information and computation in physical systems.

BIO-MOLECULAR & CELLULAR SYSTEMS: protein and DNA folding, bio-molecular informatics, membranes, cellular response and communication, genetic regulation, gene- cytoplasm interactions, development, cellular differentiation, primitive multicellular organisms, the immune system.

CELLULAR SYSTEMS: cellular response and communication, genetic regulation, gene-cytoplasm interactions, development, cellular differentiation, primitive multicellular organisms, the immune system.

PHYSIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS: nervous system, neuro-muscular control, neural network models of brain, cognition, psychofunction, pattern recognition, man-machine interactions.

HUMAN SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEMS: corporate and social structures, markets, the global economy, the Internet.

Pedagogical Sessions:

The conference will include pedagogical sessions on Sunday, Sept. 21.