Science as a Complex Adaptive System: Optimizing the Design of Scientific Institutions to Address Global Environmental Challenges
Title: Science as a Complex Adaptive System: Optimizing the Design of Scientific Institutions to Address Global Environmental Challenges
Speaker: dr. Emma Zajdela
Date: Friday, September 11, 13:30 – 14:30
Location: LAB42, Room L3.35
Teams:
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/371298419174392?p=w0zFpq6D5zRvfBlmXK
Meeting ID: 371 298 419 174 392
Passcode: me76pG22
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Abstract:
Scientific institutions influence how researchers interact, collaborate, develop new ideas, and inform policy. Yet, we still have a limited quantitative understanding of how their design impacts innovation, collaboration, and decision-making for the public good. In this talk, I will first discuss a series of studies using longitudinal data from a decade of interdisciplinary scientific conferences known as the Scialogs. Combining a nonlinear dynamical systems model with network and data science methods, we study how interactions among scientists lead to the self-assembly of research teams, how conference format affects connectivity within scientific communities, and how these effects persist beyond the conference itself. I will then extend this perspective from collaboration among scientists to cooperation around scientific knowledge. Using a game-theoretic model, we study how scientific assessments like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) can influence international cooperation on climate change. We show that sharing information, reaching scientific consensus, and reducing uncertainty expand the conditions for cooperation. Finally, I will discuss ongoing work studying how creative ideas are formed. Through a new digital platform (ARCH) designed by the Santa Fe Institute to support interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration, we are developing approaches to study how ideas emerge and spread, and how to design digital environments that support creativity and scientific discovery. Collectively, these studies highlight how we can leverage computational science to design the scientific ecosystems needed to foster ideation, collaboration, and cooperation to solve emerging global challenges.
Bio:
Emma Zajdela is an applied mathematician whose research focuses on developing mathematical models for complex social systems. She is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University and a Research Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. She holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University. The applications of her research are interdisciplinary and include governance for global environmental challenges, scientific collaboration, and fashion trends using methods from dynamical systems, network science, game theory, and data science. Her current research investigates optimal design of institutions at the science-policy interface. From 2022 to 2025, Zajdela was elected early-career member-at-large of the American Physical Society’s Division of Statistical and Nonlinear Physics. For more than a decade, she has worked with the Malta Conferences Foundation, a nonprofit organization that uses science diplomacy in Middle East, where she currently serves as Treasurer and member of the Board of Directors. She has represented Princeton University as an official observer at the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and COP climate negotiations. She is passionate about bringing her love of math and science to young people and the general public and has been active in science outreach programs including Pint of Science, Sonia Kovalesky days for women in math, and the French “Maths en Jean.” Zajdela’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Intelligence Community, Sloan Foundation, Siegel Research Endowment, and Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. Her research has received recognition through awards including the Mathematical Association of America Allendoerfer Award (2022) and through media coverage around the world including in Newsweek (USA), The Times of London (UK), El País (Spain), Journal Público (Portugal), Vanity Fair Italia (Italy), Nouvel Obs (France), BBC (UK), and National Public Radio (USA).