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Complexity Futures: New Paradigms 2026

  • Welcome
  • Speakers & Organizers
  • Schedule
  • Resources

Schedule

Friday, April 24
11:15 Shuttles from hotel to Gurley Forum, Miller campus
 
12:00-1:00 Lunch
 
1:00-1:15 Welcome & Introduction: Day 1

David Krakauer (President & William H. Miller Professor of Complex Systems)
Eric Beinhocker (Professor, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford; External Professor, Chair of the Science Board, SFI)
 
1:15-1:55 Ev Fedorenko, “Language and Intelligence in Humans and Machines” (Associate Professor, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, and Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT)
 
1:55-2:15 Q & A
 
2:15-2:55 M.J. Crockett, “Prefiguring a Human Science for the 21st Century” (Professor, Department of Psychology & University Center for Human Values, Princeton University)
 
2:55- 3:15 Q & A
3:15-3:30 Break
 
3:30-4:10 Eric Beinhocker, “Paradigm Change in Economics and the Economy” (Professor, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford; External Professor, Chair of the Science Board, SFI)
 
4:10-4:30 Q & A
 
4:30-5:00 Reflections: Day 1

Andrea Liu (Hepburn Professor of Physics & Director, Center for Soft and Living Matter, University of Pennsylvania)
Karen Willcox (Director, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, Associate Vice President for Research, and Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin; External Faculty, Science Board Member, SFI)
 
5:00-5:15 Break
 
5:15-6:15 pm Reception/Talk

Thomas Friedman, “The Second Big Bang'' ("Foreign Affairs" columnist, The New York Times)
 
6:15-8:00 Dinner – Gurley Forum
 
8:00 Shuttle to hotel
 
Saturday, April 25
8:30 Shuttle from Hotel to Miller Campus
 
9:00-9:15 Welcome/Introduction: Day 2

David Krakauer & Eric Beinhocker
 
9:15-9:55 Jenann Ismael, “Life, Agency, and Active Inference: Why the Laplacian Paradigm Was Dead Long Before Quantum Mechanics" (William H. Miller III Professor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University; Science Board Member, SFI)
 
9:55-10:10 Q & A
10:10-10:30 Break
 
10:30-11:10 Anima Anandkumar, “How Do We Push the Frontiers of AI for Scientific Discovery?" (Bren Professor of Computing & Mathematical Sciences, Caltech)
 
11:10-11:30 Q & A
 
11:30-12:10 D. Eric Smith, "Recognizing Generative Programs Before Objects, in Life’s Origin and the Major Work of Evolution" (Principal Investigator [Specially Appointed Professor], Earth-Life Science Institute; External Professor, SFI)
 
12:10-12:30 Q & A
12:30-2:00 Lunch
 
2:00-3:00 Ricard Solé, “Complexity Spaces” (Head, Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra; External Professor, SFI)
 
3:00-4:00 Melinda Mills, “The New Science of Lives: From Molecules to Populations in an Age of Total Data” (Professor, Demography & Population Health and Director, Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford & Nuffield College, UK)

 

4:00-4:15 Break
 
4:15-4:45 Reflections: Day 2

Brice Ménard (Professor of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University; Science Board Member, SFI)
Venki Ramakrishnan (Group Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge, UK; Fractal Faculty, Science Board Member, SFI)
 
4:45-5:00 Conclusions
David Krakauer and Eric Beinhocker
 
 
Shuttle options: 
5:15 to Cowan campus OR
5:15 to hotel 
6:15 from hotel to Cowan campus 

 
5:45
Reception at Cowan campus 
6:15 Dinner at Cowan campus 
8:00  Final shuttle from Cowan campus to hotel