- IDEAS -

No New Applications are Being Accepted

Institutions - Diversity - Emergence - Adaptation - Structures

-- Complex Systems and Institutional Analysis --

IDEAS is a joint project of the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Complex Systems (CSCS) and the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) and is funded by a National Science Foundation IGERT grant.

Press Release:

The University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Complex Systems and The Santa Fe Institute are pleased to announce a new NSF funded PhD program that combines the intellectual resources of these two research centers.   The program will be called IDEAS which stands for Institutions, Diversity, Emergence, Adaptation, Structures. This program will accept students enrolled in affiliated departments at the University of Michigan and provide them with a core curriculum in complex systems, paid research assistantships,  opportunities for semesters of study at SFI, internships with corporations,  physical and virtual links to SFI faculty and seminars, and participation in UM-SFI short courses and a variety of other team oriented research activities at UM.

IDEAS Program University of Michigan 4485C Randall Laboratory Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1120 Phone (734) 763-3301 Fax (734) 763-9267 http://www.cscs.umich.edu/ideas-igert/ email: ideas-igert@umich.edu

The IDEAS program comes at a fortuitous time for both SFI and UM-CSCS. The Santa Fe Institute is beginning three large initiatives in related to themes in the IDEAS program.  Sam Bowles, the recently appointed George Cowen Chair in behavioral economics is running a series of workshops and thematic research groups related to adaptation and endogenous institutions.  And former SFI Vice President Erica Jen is leading a robustness initiative.  The latter initiative spans multiple disciplines and involves dozens of top faculty from around the world, including UM's Henry Wright and Jenna Bednar.  Finally, Doyne Farmer who uses complex systems approaches to study financial institutions just received a McDonnell foundation complexity grant to fund his projects.

The Center for the Study of Complex Systems has launched several initiatives related to the IDEAS program. CSCS director Carl Simon leads a Ford sponsored program on sustainable mobility.  Carl together with James Koopmans and Len Sander also received an UM-Rackham research grant to study contact structures. CSCS Associate Director Scott Page received a McDonnell Foundation grant and a UM-CRLT grant for Project Diversity, an initiative to synthesize theories related to diverse populations across the social, physical, and natural sciences. With Dan Brown and Joan Nassuer, Scott and CSCS research scientist Rick Riolo received an NSF bio-complexity grant for Project SLUCE, an agent based modeling approach to studying land use at the urban rural fringe.  Recent CSCS and Physics hire, Mark Newman received a McDonnell grant for his work on networks structures. Rick Riolo and CSCS graduate student Ravi Bhavnani received money from the DIA for their work on decision making in closed regimes, and Ken Kollman (of CSCS and ISR) received an NSF grant for his research on political institutions.  

The University of Michigan is committed to a diverse community and strongly encourages applications from women and members of historically underrepresented minority groups.

For more information, write to ideas-igert@umich.edu. The IDEAS Program is funded by NSF IGERT grant no. ?.

How To Apply:

Step 1
Contact the Center for the Study of Complex Systems

Center for the Study of Complex Systems

Step 2
Apply for the PhD program in an IDEAS affiliated department.

Step 3
The IDEAS admissions committee will award fellowships in consultation with the affiliated departments.

Have questions? Email IDEAS at ideas-igert@umich.edu