Dave Feldman: Difference between revisions
From Santa Fe Institute Events Wiki
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| (4 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
== David P. Feldman == | == David P. Feldman == | ||
I have had the pleasure of being on the faculty of the | I have been a faculty member in physics and mathematics at the College of the Atlantic since 1998. There I teach a wide range of math and physics classes. I was a student at the Santa Fe CSSS in 1996 and I have had the pleasure of being on the faculty of the Complex Systems Summer School since 2004, our first year in China. Since 2006 I have served as co-director the CSSS with Dr. Xiaosong Chen of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Beijing. | ||
co- | |||
Theoretical Physics in Beijing. | |||
In the past | My background is in theoretical physics and my main line of research has been refining and applying various measures of complexity to dynamical systems and model statistical mechanical systems. My most recent work in this area is a [http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.4789 survey of complexity-entropy relationships] for a wide range of different model systems. I am also very interested in the teaching of dynamical systems and complex systems. I am currently finishing up an introductory, algebra based textbook on chaos and fractals. The text will be published by Oxford University Press. | ||
I have not done much work in complex networks, although I did teach a class on networks last fall. I also supervised two undergraduate projects, both of which involved applying community detection algorithms. I am fascinated the possibilities of analyzing large network data sets. In my optimistic moments I think they provide the potential to provide empirical insight into how people group and sort themselves and how people engage in economic and strategic interactions. Other times I wonder if network analysis will be able to tell us anything we didn't already know. I'm excited to learn more about the applications of networks during the workshop. I also look forward to learning about urban dynamics. I grew up in New York City and have been a frequent visitor to Beijing, and I love the energy and excitement and diversity of big cities. I don't know much about the science of cities, but I'm eager to learn | |||
<!--In the past several years, my lectures have covered a number of foundational topics | |||
in complex systems, including chaos, information theory, computation theory, and | in complex systems, including chaos, information theory, computation theory, and | ||
measures of complexity. I'll speak on a similar mix of topics this year. | measures of complexity. I'll speak on a similar mix of topics this year.--> | ||
Much more (too much) information about me can be found on my [http://hornacek.coa.edu/dave web page]. I'm also on a bunch of social networking sites and stuff, which you should be able to find with a little searching. | |||
---- | |||
<!-- | |||
=== Five Questions === | |||
# ''What topics do you have some expertise in and would you be willing to help others learn them?'' Well, I'll be lecturing on chaos, information theory, computation theory, and measures of complexity. Chaos, info theory, and complexity measures I'm all very familiar with, as I've used them in my research quite a bit. I'm much less of an expert on computation theory. My background is in statistical physics, so I'd be happy to help people with questions in this area if I can. More generally, over the last few years I've taught lots of different math classes, as I'm essentially the only math and professor at the college where I work. | |||
# ''What do you want to learn at the CSSS?'' I'm particularly looking forward to some of the lecturers that I haven't heard before: Clauset, Wiggins, and Zhou. I'm also looking forward to learning from the students as they do their projects and take part in discussions. | |||
# ''Do you have any projects or research interests that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach?'' | |||
# ''Do you have any ideas for what sort of project you would like to do this summer?'' | |||
# ''Suppose you could travel one-hundred years in the future and ask researchers any three questions. What would those questions be?'' Choosing only three is really hard. Let's see. I'll cheat some by listing three clusters of questions: | |||
## Has quantum mechanics been replaced by any other theory? Is the EPR paradox still vexing? And did string theory amount to anything, or was it just some cool mathematics and speculative physics? | |||
## What has the "complex systems" approach lead to? Are there any unifying principles of complex systems, or is complex systems more a set of tools and methods? (My guess is the latter, but time will tell.) What do academic disciplines look like now? Are academic departments configured pretty much as they were in 2000, or are disciplines now more or less obsolete? | |||
## What do we use for energy now? How much does a barrel of oil cost? Have we found replacements for fossil fuels? And if so, who were leaders in the transition away from fossil fuels? Was the transition a peaceful one, or were there wars and famine? Have we made meaningful progress on global warming? | |||
By the way, I got the idea for asking these questions from an essay by [http://people.ccmr.cornell.edu/%7Emermin/homepage/ndm.html David Mermin] that appeared in Physics Today in 2001. In the essay, Mermin came up with a list of ten questions for physicists in 2100. The original essay can be found [http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-2/p11.html here]. I think you have to be an APS or AAPT member to access this. However, all should be able to access this [http://people.ccmr.cornell.edu/~mermin/homepage/talk1.pdf talk by Mermin] in which he gives his ten questions and discusses his thinking behind each of them. | |||
[http:// | --> | ||
Latest revision as of 01:07, 9 July 2009
David P. Feldman
I have been a faculty member in physics and mathematics at the College of the Atlantic since 1998. There I teach a wide range of math and physics classes. I was a student at the Santa Fe CSSS in 1996 and I have had the pleasure of being on the faculty of the Complex Systems Summer School since 2004, our first year in China. Since 2006 I have served as co-director the CSSS with Dr. Xiaosong Chen of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Beijing.
My background is in theoretical physics and my main line of research has been refining and applying various measures of complexity to dynamical systems and model statistical mechanical systems. My most recent work in this area is a survey of complexity-entropy relationships for a wide range of different model systems. I am also very interested in the teaching of dynamical systems and complex systems. I am currently finishing up an introductory, algebra based textbook on chaos and fractals. The text will be published by Oxford University Press.
I have not done much work in complex networks, although I did teach a class on networks last fall. I also supervised two undergraduate projects, both of which involved applying community detection algorithms. I am fascinated the possibilities of analyzing large network data sets. In my optimistic moments I think they provide the potential to provide empirical insight into how people group and sort themselves and how people engage in economic and strategic interactions. Other times I wonder if network analysis will be able to tell us anything we didn't already know. I'm excited to learn more about the applications of networks during the workshop. I also look forward to learning about urban dynamics. I grew up in New York City and have been a frequent visitor to Beijing, and I love the energy and excitement and diversity of big cities. I don't know much about the science of cities, but I'm eager to learn
Much more (too much) information about me can be found on my web page. I'm also on a bunch of social networking sites and stuff, which you should be able to find with a little searching.