Annual Business Network and Board of Trustees Symposium

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Held At Bishops Lodge Resort, 1297 Bishops Lodge Road, Santa Fe, NM

November 3-5, 2011

Organized by: Doug Erwin, Chair of Faculty and Professor, SFI; Chris Wood, Vice President of Administration and Director of the Business Network, SFI

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"Does the Individual Matter?"

Individuals play a critical role in many fields of science, yet there is great disagreement over whether individuals, rather than collectives, actually matter for the progress of science (and there is, of course, considerable difference in how individuals are defined).

The Trustees/BNet Symposium will explore the role of individuals in different scientific contexts, from atoms and molecules through economies, societies, and cultures. The goal is to highlight differences in the importance of individuals within and between scientific domains, as well as differences in how individuals are defined within and between domains.

Speakers Include:

Luis Bettencourt, SFI and Los Alamos National Laboratory

"Is There a Role for the Individual in Physics"

Simon DeDeo, SFI

"The Individual from a Complex Systems Perspective"

Raissa D'Souza, SFI and University of California, Davis

"The Role of Individuals in Networks"

Doug Erwin, SFI and the Smithsonian Institution

"The Individual and the Collective in Biology"

Jason Karlawish, University of Pennsylvania

"Desktop Medicine"

Rajiv Sethi, SFI and Barnard College, Columbia University

"Individual Strategies and Aggregate Outcomes in Financial Markets"

Geoffrey West, SFI

Charles Marshall, UC Berkeley

Debate:

"Individuals and Collectives in Scientific Theory"