Yaneer Bar-Yam
Encyclopedia
Yaneer Bar-Yam is an American physicist
, systems scientist, and founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute
.
. He was a Bantrell PostDoctoral Fellow, and a joint postdoctoral fellow at MIT and IBM
. In 1991, after a junior faculty appointment at the Weizmann Institute, he became an Associate Professor of Engineering at Boston University
.
He left Boston University in 1997 to become president of the New England Complex Systems Institute
. He is also an Associate of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University
. He is chairman of the International Conference on Complex Systems and managing editor of InterJournal.
as a systematic strategy for answering basic questions about the world. His research is focused both on formalizing complex systems concepts and relating them to everyday problems. In particular, he studies the relationship between observations at different scales, formal properties of descriptions of systems, the relationship of structure and function, the representation of information as a physical quantity, and quantitative properties of the complexity of real systems. Applications have been to physical
, biological and social systems.
Bar-Yam has made further contributions to the theory of the structural and electronic dynamics of materials, the theory of polymer dynamics and protein folding, the theory of neural networks and structure-function relationships, the theory of quantitative multiscale complexity, and the theory of evolution.
Books:
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, systems scientist, and founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute
New England Complex Systems Institute
The New England Complex Systems Institute is an American research institution dedicated to advancing the study of complex systems. It was founded in 1996 and is located in Cambridge, MA.- Overview :...
.
Biography
Yaneer Bar-Yam was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1959. He received his B.S. degree in 1978 and his Ph.D. degree in 1984, both in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. He was a Bantrell PostDoctoral Fellow, and a joint postdoctoral fellow at MIT and IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
. In 1991, after a junior faculty appointment at the Weizmann Institute, he became an Associate Professor of Engineering at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
.
He left Boston University in 1997 to become president of the New England Complex Systems Institute
New England Complex Systems Institute
The New England Complex Systems Institute is an American research institution dedicated to advancing the study of complex systems. It was founded in 1996 and is located in Cambridge, MA.- Overview :...
. He is also an Associate of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. He is chairman of the International Conference on Complex Systems and managing editor of InterJournal.
Work
Bar-Yam studies the unified properties of complex systemsComplex systems
Complex systems present problems in mathematical modelling.The equations from which complex system models are developed generally derive from statistical physics, information theory and non-linear dynamics, and represent organized but unpredictable behaviors of systems of nature that are considered...
as a systematic strategy for answering basic questions about the world. His research is focused both on formalizing complex systems concepts and relating them to everyday problems. In particular, he studies the relationship between observations at different scales, formal properties of descriptions of systems, the relationship of structure and function, the representation of information as a physical quantity, and quantitative properties of the complexity of real systems. Applications have been to physical
Physical system
In physics, the word system has a technical meaning, namely, it is the portion of the physical universe chosen for analysis. Everything outside the system is known as the environment, which in analysis is ignored except for its effects on the system. The cut between system and the world is a free...
, biological and social systems.
Bar-Yam has made further contributions to the theory of the structural and electronic dynamics of materials, the theory of polymer dynamics and protein folding, the theory of neural networks and structure-function relationships, the theory of quantitative multiscale complexity, and the theory of evolution.
Publications
Professor Bar-Yam has written several books and articles.Books:
- 1978, The MIT three-element radio interferometer (miniferometer) and observations of Saturn at 1.35 cm, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. Thesis. 1978. B.S by Yaneer Bar-Yam
- 1992, Lattice Effects in High-Tc Superconductors: Proceedings of the Conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico, January 13–15, 1992, with T. Egami, J. Mustre-Ed Leon and A. R. Bishop.
- 1997, Dynamics of Complex Systems, Westview Press, 864 pp.
- 2003, Unifying Themes in Complex Systems: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Complex Systems
- 2005, Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World, Knowledge Press, 306 pp.
- 2007, Unifying Themes in Complex Systems, Vol. IIIB: New Research, with Ali A. Minai.
External links
- Yaneer Bar-Yam, New England Complex Systems Institute website, 2007.