Sahana Subramanyam was a participant in SFI's 2018 summer Research Experience for Undergraduates — now called the Undergraduate Complexity Research program. In this essay, she reflects on how the ...

Convening a global cohort of curious, driven, generous, and brilliant people from across a vast range of expertise and career stages sets the possibility space for SFI’s Complex Systems Summer School, ...

Processual archaeologists began employing some of the vocabulary now current in complexity studies in the 1960s and 1970s, inspired by cybernetics, general systems theory, and contemporary ...

Scott Page Professor of Complexity at the University of Michigan; Science Board Member + External Professor at SFI ...

SFI Resident Professor Melanie Mitchell has received a 2025 Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

We ask all applicants to read all of the UCR info pages carefully before applying or emailing us with questions. Thank you. SFI’s UCR program is designed for curious, motivated students who can work ...

It has become increasingly vital for students across the sciences to gain computational and mathematical skills: the ability to translate real-world systems into quantitative models, carry out ...

This working group brings together scholars from diverse fields—neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and AI—who are all investigating the broad notion of “intelligence”, whether in biological systems ...

Across biology — from microbial communities to cancer tumors to ancient human populations — researchers measure diversity in ways that shape how we understand life. But those measurements are often ...

Each participant is provided with their own private room and a private bathroom (en suite). Students do not share sleeping spaces. The housing arrangement is intended to balance community and rest: ...

Most people are aware of smoking's harmful health effects, yet many choose to light up regularly. If viewed from the lens of rational choice theory — an economic framework that suggests people always ...

Clinical data (on patients from elephant seals to people) make clear the extraordinary and contradictory powers of the mammalian immune system: a vital line of defense, yet a source of grave danger.