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Toward Sustainable Social Systems

The increasingly complex and interconnected world in which we live poses broad new challenges for science and society. Among the most important are global climate change, clean energy, population growth, sustainable food and water supplies, and the development of effective social organizations on both local and global scales.
The science of complex systems, which focuses on systems having many component parts and multitudes of interconnections, highly nonlinear interactions, and patterns of organization at many scales, provides an important perspective for addressing those challenges.
This symposium will gather experts from a variety of disciplinary and institutional backgrounds to explore strategies for developing sustainable social systems.

>>Speaker Biographies

  • Monday, 14 December

  • Science and Culture (Chair: Shigeru Watanabe)
    09:30
    Yoshiharu Doi (Executive Director, RIKEN)
    09:40
    Shigeru Watanabe (Centre Director, CHC)
    Opening Remarks
    10:00
    Chris Wood (Vice President, Santa Fe Institute)
    Catalyzing trans-disciplinary research: Lessons from SFI's 25-year experience
    11:00
    Monique van Donzel (Nanyang Technological University)
    Directions of NTU towards an Asian hub for interdisciplinary research
    11:40
    Erling Norrby (The Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Institute Para Limes)
    Do the cultural conditions for making discoveries awarded with Nobel Prizes change with time?
  • Culture and Evolution (Chair: Jan Vasbinder)
    13:20
    Luis Bettencourt (Los Alamos National Laboratory, Santa Fe Institute)
    Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities
    14:00
    Atsushi Iriki (RIKEN Brain Science Institute, CHC)
    Neuroscience of primates' intellectual evolution
    15:00
    Michel Hofman (Royal Academy of Arts and Science, Netherlands)
    Human cognitive evolution
    15:40
    Yuichiro Anzai (Keio University)
    Is cognition complex?
    16:20
    John Holland (University of Michigan, Santa Fe Institute)
    Future directions of complex adaptive systems

  • Tuesday, 15 December

  • Complex System (Chair: Monique van Donzel)
    09:20
    Yilong Lu (Nanyang Technological University)
    Evolutionary algorithm in natural, artificial and social systems
    10:00
    Hideyuki Okano (Keio University, CHC)
    Innovative technologies on CNS regeneration and generation of neurological diseases model
    11:00
    Peter van den Besselaar (Rathenau Institute, Institute Para Limes)
    Science as a Complex Ecosystem
    11:40
    Helena Hong Gao (Nanyang Technological University)
    Linguistics as a complex adaptive system
  • Sustainable Evolution (Chair: Chris Wood)
    13:20
    Daan Frenkel (University of Cambridge, Institute Para Limes)
    Thermodynamics and phase transitions
    14:00
    Jessika Trancik (Omidyar Fellow, Santa Fe Institute)
    Modeling the innovation dynamics of energy systems and the levers for reducing carbon emissions
    15:00
    Jan Vasbinder (President, Institute Para Limes)
    Direction of IPL and intellectual interactions in Europe
    15:40
    Takashi Maeno (Keio University, CHC)
    Concluding Discussions
    16:10
    Closing Address
Registration Procedure Online registration is required.
Admission free.
For registration, please click Registration Form button.
Telephone/Fax registration is not acceptable.
Registration deadline: Friday 13 December, 2009.
This event will be held in English; no interpretation will be provided.
Organizer KEIO-RIKEN Research Centre for Human Cognition (CHC)
Co-organaizers RIKEN Brain Science Institute Keio University Global COE Program
"Center for Advanced Research on Logic and Sensibility"
"Education and Research Center for Stem Cell Medicine"
"Organization of Education and Research of Safe, Secure and Symbiotic System Design"
Venue Fujiwara Hiroshi Hall (Kyosei-kan) of Keio University, Hiyoshi Campus, Yokohama
4-1-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Kanagawa 223-8526
Access 1min. walk from Hiyoshi Station
(Tokyu Toyoko•Meguro Line or Yokohama Municipal Subway Green Line)
* Ltd. Express trains of Tokyu Toyoko Line do not stop at Hiyoshi Station.
Language English only; no interpretation will be provided.
Contact for inquiries Inquiries can be sent to: Research Centre for Human Cognition (CHC)
E-Mail: human-cognition@adst.keio.ac.jp