The New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) is an independent

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

research institution and think tank dedicated to advancing analytics and its application to the challenges of society, and the interaction of

complex systems A complex system is a system composed of many components that may interact with one another. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...

with the environment. NECSI offers educational programs, conducts research, and hosts the International Conference on Complex Systems. It was founded in 1996 and is located in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Massachusetts.

Overview

NECSI was established in 1996 by faculty of various New England academic institutions, including

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, Brandeis, and others, to encourage communication and collaboration among researchers studying complex systems. The NECSI web site describes "

" as follows:

Complex systems have multiple interacting components whose
collective behavior The expression collective behavior was first used by Franklin Henry Giddings and employed later by Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, Herbert Blumer, Ralph H. Turner and Lewis Killian, and Neil Smelser to refer to social processes and even ...
cannot be simply inferred from the behavior of components. The recognition that understanding the parts cannot explain collective behavior has led to various new concepts and methodologies that are affecting all fields of science and engineering, and are being applied to technology, business and even
social policy Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...
.

NECSI promotes collaboration and dissemination of new research among complex systems researchers in wide-ranging disciplines and numerous institutions. NECSI's activities for this purpose include hosting an international research conference and maintaining a roster of affiliated scholars and co-faculty.

International Conference on Complex Systems

NECSI hosts the International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS), whose aims are:

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.

ICCS takes place on an occasional basis, with the most recent (eighth conference) in 2011. ICCS conferences have featured notable computer scientists (e.g., Gerald Sussman), mathematicians (e.g., Stephen Wolfram), systems theorists (e.g.,

John Sterman John David Sterman is the Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management, and the current director of the MIT System Dynamics Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He is mos ...

), physicists (e.g. Sandy Pentland), economists (e.g., James Stock), and others. Events at ICCS include research presentations and workshops, as well as pedagogical sessions aimed at a wider community.

Affiliates and co-faculty

NECSI provides a public platform for affiliates and co-faculty at numerous academic institutions, primarily in the New England region. These researchers also contribute to NECSI educational programs. ;Faculty and co-Faculty *

Yaneer Bar-Yam Yaneer Bar-Yam (born 1959) is an American scientist and activist specializing in complex systems. An expert in the quantitative analysis of pandemics, he advised policy makers on the Western African Ebola virus epidemic and founded EndCoronaviru ...

, President * Michel Baranger *Dan Braha *

Charles Cantor Charles R. Cantor (born August 26, 1942 in Brooklyn) is an American molecular geneticist who, in conjunction with David Schwartz, developed pulse field gel electrophoresis for very large DNA molecules. Cantor's three-volume book ''Biophysical ...

*Richard Cooper *

Terrence Deacon Terrence William Deacon (born 1950) is an American neuroanthropologist (Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology, Harvard University 1984). He taught at Harvard for eight years, relocated to Boston University in 1992, and is currently Professor of Anth ...

*Irving Epstein *

William Gelbart William Michael Gelbart (born June 12, 1946) is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute and the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute. He ...

*Ernest Hartmann *

Jerome Kagan Jerome Kagan (February 25, 1929 – May 10, 2021) was an American psychologist, who was the Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, as well as, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was ...

* Mehran Kardar * Les Kaufman *Eric Klopfer *Frannie Leautier *Blake LeBaron *Luci Leykum *

Seth Lloyd Seth Lloyd (born August 2, 1960) is a professor of mechanical engineering and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research area is the interplay of information with complex systems, especially quantum systems. He has perfor ...

Sandy Pentland Alex Paul "Sandy" Pentland (born 1951) is an American computer scientist, HAI Fellow at Stanford, Toshiba Professor at MIT, and serial entrepreneur. Education Pentland received his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and obtaine ...

*Tom Petzinger *Stuart Pimm *Larry Rudolph *

Thomas Schelling Thomas Crombie Schelling (April 14, 1921 – December 13, 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign policy, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Coll ...

Peter Senge Peter Michael Senge (born 1947) is an American systems scientist who is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and the founder of the Society for Organizational Learni ...

*Temple Smith *

*James Stock *

Nassim Nicholas Taleb Nassim Nicholas Taleb (; alternatively ''Nessim ''or'' Nissim''; born 12 September 1960) is a Lebanese-American essayist, mathematical statistician, former option trader, risk analyst, and aphorist. His work concerns problems of randomness, ...

*Hiroshi Tasaka *

Günter Wagner Gunter or Günter may refer to: * Gunter rig, a type of sailing rig, especially in small boats * Gunter Annex, Alabama, a United States Air Force installation * Gunter, Texas, city in the United States * the former German name of the village of ...

*Peter Timmer ;Affiliates *Marcus de Aguiar *Zvi Bar-Yam *

Bruce M. Boghosian Prof. Bruce Michael Boghosian is an American mathematician. He has been a professor of mathematics at Tufts University since 2000, and was chair of the mathematics department from 2006 to 2010. He also holds adjunct positions in the Tufts Univers ...

*Raffaele Calabretta *Jeffrey Cares *Gavin Crooks *

Eric Feigl-Ding Eric Liang Feigl-Ding (, born March 28, 1983) is an American public health scientist who is currently an epidemiologist and Chief of COVID Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was formerly a faculty member and researcher a ...

*Meghan Dierks *Melissa Gerber *Helen Harte *Steven Hassan *Sui Huang *Michael J. Jacobson *Fumiaki Katagiri *Andreas Kemper *Mark Klein *Greg Lindsay *David Meyer *Ali Minai *Joseph Norman *Hiroki Sayama *Paul Seguin *

Tommaso Toffoli Tommaso Toffoli () is an Italian-American professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University where he joined the faculty in 1995. He has worked on cellular automata and the theory of artificial life (with Edward Fredkin and othe ...

*Omer Trajman *Sheldon White *Uri Wilensky

Research areas

Evolution and ecology

NECSI researchers have contributed to the understanding of evolutionary dynamics, the evolution of

altruism Altruism is the concern for the well-being of others, independently of personal benefit or reciprocity. The word ''altruism'' was popularised (and possibly coined) by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French, as , for an antonym of egoi ...

, the origin and characterization of

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

, and the interplay between evolution and ecology. Much of the work done at NECSI has focused on the role of the spatial distribution of species, an often overlooked factor of evolutionary dynamics. In the case where portions of a population are geographically isolated from each other, for example,

was able to demonstrate shortcomings in the

gene-centered view of evolution The gene-centered view of evolution, gene's eye view, gene selection theory, or selfish gene theory holds that adaptive evolution occurs through the differential survival of competing genes, increasing the allele frequency of those alleles wh ...

, an approximation that is valid only if there is complete mixing of alleles in the gene pool.

Networks

Studies of

network topologies Network topology is the arrangement of the elements ( links, nodes, etc.) of a communication network. Network topology can be used to define or describe the arrangement of various types of telecommunication networks, including command and cont ...

have found surprising similarities between a variety of complex social, technological and biological networks. NECSI research in networks focuses on the relationship between structure, dynamics and function. The study of networks has emerged in diverse disciplines as a means of analyzing complex relational data.

Social systems

NECSI research in social systems focuses on the collective actions that create revolutions, ethnic violence, urban health, fads and panics, global food and so on. The role of individuals and organization can be analyzed by techniques and tools of

Representation

Complex systems exhibit behaviors at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Researchers working at NECSI have developed a mathematical formalism for simultaneously describing systems on multiple scales. This formalism had been applied to physical systems, information systems, organizational behavior, engineering projects and military conflict. An essential tool for multiscale analysis, the complexity profile, the relationship between the observed complexity of a system and the scale of observation.

Post-crisis focus on social and economic systems

Since 2009, the Institute's research focus has shifted to socio-economic systems, with particular attention to the causes and consequences of the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

and dynamics of

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networks and social sentiment. Policy-relevant articles on stock market regulation and market crashes, food riots and the causes of high

food prices Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing and food di ...

, and the European bond crisis have been released straight to the press. Peer-reviewed articles continue to appear on other subjects.

Further fields of research

Systems biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological system ...

Systems engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their Enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering uti ...

* Organizational management *

Negotiation Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more parties to resolve points of difference, gain an advantage for an individual or Collective bargaining, collective, or craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. The parties aspire to agree on m ...

Network Science Network science is an academic field which studies complex networks such as telecommunication networks, computer networks, biological networks, Cognitive network, cognitive and semantic networks, and social networks, considering distinct eleme ...

Herbert A. Simon Award

The Herbert A. Simon Award is given by the Institute to "researchers who have made important lifetime contributions to the field of complex systems science." The winners are: * Melanie Mitchell * H. Eugene Stanley *

Muhammad Yunus Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi economist, entrepreneur, and civil society leader who has been serving as the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, Chief Adviser of the Interim government of Muhammad Yunus, interim Yunus ministry, g ...

John F. Nash Jr. John Forbes Nash Jr. (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015), known and published as John Nash, was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, real algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and partial differentia ...

* Philip W. Anderson *

Stuart Kauffman Stuart Alan Kauffman (born September 28, 1939) is an American medical doctor, theoretical biology, theoretical biologist, and complex systems researcher who studies the origin of life on Earth. He was a professor at the University of Chicago, Un ...

Public attention

NECSI's work on the global food crisis has been widely cited by the press, by movements to curb financial speculation, and included among the top-10 discoveries in science in 2011 by

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

. NECSI's scientific visualizations have received multiple citations on top-10 lists. NECSI has been called "a pioneer in using mathematics, computation and other quantitative methods to analyse topics like ethnic violence, economic crises and healthcare systems" by the press.

Early Warning on the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic

Prior to global lockdowns, in January, 2020 Joseph Norman, Yaneer Bar Yam, and Nassim Taleb submitted a paper to the White House administration, urging them to take drastic steps to curtail the disease. NECSI later assembled EndCoronaVirus.org, which included over 4,000 volunteers by March 21, 2020. The network of volunteers built endCoronavirus.org with the goal to minimize the impact of COVID-19 by providing useful data and guidelines for action.

References

External links

NECSIBarabasiLabNorth Western Institute on Complex SystemsCABDyN OxfordCNets IndianaCenter for Complexity Science, Warwick University
{{authority control Research institutes in Massachusetts Systems science institutes