GSSS 2016-Faculty

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[http://www.santafe.edu/about/people/profile/Luis%20Bettencourt Luis Bettencourt, GSSS Director'

Luís M. A. Bettencourt is a Professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute He was trained as a theoretical physicist and obtained his PhD from Imperial College (University of London, UK) in 1996, for research in statistical and high-energy physics models of the early Universe. He has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Heidelberg (Germany), Los Alamos National Laboratory (Director’s Fellow and Slansky Fellow) and at MIT (Center for Theoretical Physics). He has worked extensively on cities and urbanization. His research emphasizes the creation of new interdisciplinary synthesis to describe cities in quantitative and predictive ways, informed by the growing availability of empirical data worldwide. His research interests also include the modeling of innovation and sustainability in developing human societies, the dynamics of infectious diseases and aspects of general information processing in complex systems. He is particularly interested in the interplay between information, structure and scale in setting the properties of diverse complex systems.

He is the author of over 80 scientific papers and several edited books. He regularly reviews papers for leading journals in Interdisciplinary Science, Physics, Urban Studies, Neuroscience, Epidemiology, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. His research has been featured worldwide, including in The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature, National Public Radio, the Economist, Harvard Business Review, Wired, the New Scientist, and SEED magazine.

Kathleen Cagney, Health and Sociology

Professor Cagney's work examines social inequality and its relationship to health with a focus on neighborhood, race, and aging and the life course. She has developed a series of papers on neighborhood social capital and its relationship to outcomes such as self-rated health, asthma prevalence, physical activity, and mortality during the 1995 Chicago heat wave. She also focuses on the validity of such measures and the development of new neighborhood-based metrics that reflect the perceptions and experiences of older residents. Currently she works on two Chicago-based studies of neighborhood context and older adult health, and is examining the role of the social and physical environment in older adult well-being with the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.

Jennifer Dunne, Ecological Networks in the Arctic

Jennifer A. Dunne is the Vice President for Science at the Santa Fe Institute, where she has been on the faculty since 2007. Jennifer received an A.B. from Harvard where she studied philosophy, an M.A. in biology from San Francisco State University, a Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley, and an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biological Informatics. As Vice President for Science, Jennifer manages all science-related activities at SFI, including the resident and external faculty, postdoctoral programs, seminar series, scientific visitors, working groups and workshops, sponsored research, and communications.

Jennifer’s research interests are in analysis, modeling, and theory related to the organization, dynamics, and function of ecosystems. Much of this work focuses on ecological networks, in particular food webs, which specify the complex feeding interactions among species in a given habitat. Food webs provide a way to track and quantify the flow of energy and resources in ecosystems and thus play a central role in ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Drawing on cross-system analysis and computational modeling, Jennifer and her collaborators seek to identify fundamental patterns and principles of ecological network structure and dynamics at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Such research provides a useful framework for understanding the coexistence of species and the robustness, persistence, and stability of ecosystems, including how humans fit into and impact ancient, historic, and current ecosystems. In addition to basic research, Jennifer and her collaborators develop ecoinformatic technologies to facilitate sharing, synthesis, visualization, analysis, and modeling of data related to biocomplexity research.

Jennifer’s publications have appeared in journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, PLoS Biology, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Ecology Letters, Ecology, and Ecological Monographs. Her work has been covered in media outlets including Scientific American, Wired, SmartPlanet, ScienceNow, and Nature News. She serves as an editor at Ecology Letters and the Journal of Complex Networks, is a series editor for the Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution, and is on the advisory board of the new science and culture magazine Nautilus.

Sean Green, Technology and Social Dynamics

Originally from Charleston, SC, Sean attended Princeton University where he received a BSE in Civil Engineering. After working for many years in San Francisco and abroad as a computer programmer, e-commerce strategy consultant, and Linux systems administrator, he enrolled in a doctoral program in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University to learn how to apply his IT skills to the types of problems that first intrigued him in his undergraduate studies. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in applied machine learning at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and subsequently worked as a Program Officer in the Special Initiatives team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Sean is currently the Interim CEO of the Waste to Resource Fund, a UK charity that promotes pro-poor, sustainable solid waste management and green energy in secondary cities in Asia. He lives in Seattle, WA.

Audrey de Nazelle, Air Pollution in Cities, Health

Audrey de Nazelle recently joined the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, as a lecturer in air pollution management. She is an expert in risk assessment and exposure science. Her research is at the intersection of environmental sciences, health behaviour, transportation, and urban planning. Her work aims at guiding decision makers towards health-promoting built environments and policies. It involves novel and holistic approaches to assessing behavioral, environmental and health impacts of urban plans and policies. She conducted her postdoctoral research at the Centre for Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona, Spain, where she developed and lead the European study Transportation Air Pollution and Physical ActivitieS: and Integrated Health Risk Assessment Programme of Climate Change and Urban Policies (TAPAS). She holds a PhD and an MS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Environmental Sciences and Engineering (UNC - ESE), and a Maîtrise in Mathematics from the University of Paris VI Pierre et Marie Curie. Dr de Nazelle currently leads the London-based case study for the EU-FP7 project Physical Activity through Sustainable Transport Approaches (PASTA). She supervises two PhD students working on the project: Esther Anaya and Juan Pablo Orjuela. If you live in London, Antwerp, Barcelona, Örebro, Rome, Vienna or Zurich, please take part in the PASTA survey. Dr de Nazelle is the PI for the Behavioural Change for Urban Sustainability (BeCUS) study, for which she is currently seeking to extend the pilot-seed funding.

Peter Newman, Urban Sustainability

Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University .He sat on the Board of Infrastructure Australia and is a Lead Author for Transport on the IPCC. His books include ‘Green Urbanism in Asia’ (2013), ‘Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change’(2009), ‘Green Urbanism Down Under’ (2009) and 'Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence' with Jeff Kenworthy which was launched in the White House in 1999. In 2001-3 Peter directed the production of Western Australia’s Sustainability Strategy in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. In 2004-5 he was a Sustainability Commissioner in Sydney advising the government on planning and transport issues. In 2006/7 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville. In 2011 Peter was awarded the Sidney Luker medal by the Planning Institute of Australia (NSW) for his contribution to the science and practice of town planning in Australia and in 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport, particularly related to the saving and rebuilding of Perth’s rail system. He was an elected Fremantle City Councillor from 1976-80 where he still lives.

Dan O’Brien, Sociology and Big Data

Dan O’Brien joined the Northeastern faculty in 2014 from Harvard University where he was the research director for the Boston Area Research Initiative. In this role he led and coordinated a range of interdisciplinary projects that bring together local researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the study of Boston. His research uses large, administrative data sets (i.e., “Big Data”) in conjunction with traditional methodologies to explore the behavioral and social dynamics of urban neighborhoods, particularly surrounding “broken windows theory.” Much of his current work builds on a recent paper, “Ecometrics in the Age of Big Data,” (co-authored with Robert J. Sampson and Christopher Winship) that presents a methodology for measuring neighborhood characteristics in the digital age.

Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber

SFI External Professor
Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Born in 1950 in Ortenburg (Germany). Training in physics and mathematics with a scholarship for the exceptionally gifted at Regensburg University. Doctorate in Theoretical Physics in 1980. Various periods of research abroad, in particular at several institutions of the University of California system (USA). Habilitation (German qualification for professorial status) in 1985, then Heisenberg Fellowship. 1989 Full Professor at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Marine and Environmental Sciences (ICBM) of Oldenburg University, later Director of the ICBM.

1991 Founding Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK); since 1993 Director of PIK and Professor for Theoretical Physics at Potsdam University. 2001-2005 additional engagement as Research Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and Professor at the Environmental Sciences School of the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK). From 2005 - 2009 Visiting Professor in Physics and Visiting Fellow of Christ Church College at Oxford University as well as Distinguished Science Advisor for the Tyndall Centre.

2002 Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award; 2004 CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) awarded by Queen Elizabeth II; 2007 German Environment Prize; 2008 Order of Merit (“Roter Adlerorden”) of the State of Brandenburg; 2009 "Ambassador of Science" of the State of Brandenburg. Elected Member of the Max Planck Society, the German National Academy (Leopoldina), the US National Academy of Sciences, the Leibniz-Sozietät, the Geological Society of London, and the International Research Society Sigma Xi. Ambassador for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). Longstanding Member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who was awarded the Peace Nobel Prize in 2007.

Active service on numerous national and international panels for scientific strategies and policy advice on environment & development matters. Selected previous and current engagements: Chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU); Chair of the Global Change Advisory Group for the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission, Member of the corresponding panel for FP7; Member of the Committee on Scientific Planning and Review of the International Council for Science (ICSU); Member of the Environment Steering Panel of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC); Member of the WEF Global Agenda Council on Climate Change; Member of the Grantham Research Institute Advisory Board.

Chief Government Advisor on Climate & Related Issues for the German G8-EU twin presidency in 2007; Member of the High-Level Expert Group on Energy & Climate Change advising J.M. Barroso, President of the European Commission. Member of the Editorial Boards of the scientific journals “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, “Climatic Change”, “Climate Policy”, “Gaia”, “Integrated Assessment”, “Systems Analysis, Modelling, Simulation” and “Europe’s World”. About 210 articles and more than 40 books in the fields of condensed matter physics, complex systems dynamics, climate change research, Earth System analysis, and sustainability science.

Jessika Trancik

External Professor, Science Steering Committee, Santa Fe Institute

Atlantic Richfield Career Development Assistant Professor in Energy Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division My research focuses on the evolution of technologies and on decomposing performance trajectories of energy systems. I am particularly interested in understanding the dynamics and limits of costs and carbon intensities of energy technologies, in order to inform climate change mitigation efforts. A subset of projects centers on nanostructured energy technologies and their potential to reach very low costs and carbon intensities. I received my B.S. in materials science and engineering from Cornell University and my Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Oxford, where I studied as a Rhodes Scholar. I have also worked for the United Nations, and as an advisor to the private sector on investment in low-carbon energy technologies.