Abstract

Complexity science links state-of-the-art mathematics, modelling, data and computer science with fundamental questions posed from various disciplines, such as medicine, economics, ecology or social sciences, and opens new paths to a deeper understanding of systemic risks, resilience, efficiency, and the requirements for sustainable innovation. In particular, Complexity Science represents systems as co-evolving multi-layer networks, which is particularly well-suited to link mathematical models with actual data. in three examples I will present how complexity science can contribute to the understanding of the homo sapiens, how it can quantfy and reduce systemic risks, and how it gives us a way to re-think medicine.

Bio

Stefan is full professor for Science of Complex Systems at the Medical University of Vienna. He is the president of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, and a senior researcher at IIASA. Stefan obtained a PhD in theoretical physics from the Technical University of Vienna and a PhD in economics from the University of Vienna. Stefan started his career in theoretical particle physics and gradually shifted his focus to the understanding of complex adaptive systems. He published about 200 articles in physics, applied mathematics, network theory, evolutionary dynamics, life sciences, economics and finance, and lately in social sciences. He holds two patents. His work has been covered by international media such as the New York Times, BBC world, Nature, New Scientist, Physics World, and is featured in more than 400 newspaper, radio and television reports. Stefan was elected Austrian “scientist of the year” in 2018.