- [] /
- 01 Dec 2020
- [] Complex Systems Computation Networks Epidemiology
Hello Complexity Explorers,
It's that time of year again. Complexity science provides crucial frameworks and quantitative tools for making sense of the events that defined 2020. This year, we learned just how practical fundamental research can be — even more so during extraordinary and challenging times. SFI scientists have been a source of key perspectives and guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have not had the chance, check out Transmission* and the Complexity Podcast, where members of the SFI research community provide accessible, wide-ranging, and unique insights into this new reality.
2020 continues to remind us that SFI's contributions to complexity science play an invaluable role in informing our response not just to pandemics, but also to the spread of online hate and disinformation, ecological collapse and climate change, increasing inequality, the unprecedented growth of cities, the need to decarbonize our energy systems, and more.
SFI successfully adjusted to the novel landscape of 2020, for example:
- SFI researchers created “Flash Workshops” over Zoom to bring together leading scientists working on the front lines of pandemic research,
- The postdocs participated in their JSMF conferences virtually and created a “pandemic pod” for their annual retreat,
- Our education department developed the first virtual “Complexity Interactive,”
- The SFI Press expanded its library to include proceedings from the 2019 InterPlanetary Festival and November Symposium, with plans to publish several new books and e-books in the coming year, and
- InterPlanetary launched three projects: a course on the Complexity of COVID-19, the conversation series, Andromeda Strain and the Meaning of Life, and a new, speculative sci-fi podcast, Alien Crash Site.
Above all, this year our "Institute without walls" stayed true to its mission of “Searching for Order in the Complexity of Evolving Worlds.”
As a follower of SFI science and Complexity Explorer, you understand the critical importance of this research. We hope you will include the Santa Fe Institute in your 2020 end-of-year giving. Your contribution helps pioneer the science and foster the intellectual community humanity will need to face future crises.
You can donate online, or give in these additional ways. Please note, the CARES Act makes charitable giving even easier; learn more here.
Thank you for being part of this renegade team! Quite simply, we would not be here without science enthusiasts like you.
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*Also featured in Aeon, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and Nautilus.
