Complexity Science Group
University of Calgary
Maya Paczuski
We have available positions for graduate students
"We are here to counsel with each other. We must build spiritual and scientific bridges linking the nations of the world" (Albert Einstein, 1947)
In 2006 I joined the University of Calgary to start the Complexity Science Group, which now includes two faculty and one visiting Professor. My research is evolving through a transdisciplinary approach which is neither top-down or bottom up, but rather considers that information and causality flows (and is transformed and reinterpreted or "simulated") both ways in complex sytems.
My theoretical research has three transdisciplinary target areas and emphasizes the study of high resolution data to develop both conceptual and quantitative models. The conceptual models provide an empirically well founded starting point where complexity is not washed out in the confusion of complicated dependencies. We build models where the fundamental variables are quantities that can be measured in the real world. We then make measurements of the real world whilst, at the same time, measure our simulated interpretation of it. This allows us to test, refine, falsify and improve our empirical description of reality.
(1) Structure and Dynamics of Complex Networks. We find new ways to characterize complex networks and use those measures to test models against real world data. Recent work has focused on how clustering and assortativity influence each other in ensembles of networks, characterizing the structure of directed networks, as well as methods and results from renormalization of networks.
(2) Complex Dynamical Systems. We develop new methods to analyze high resolution spatiotemporal data and at the same time develop theoretical models (that can be analyzed in the same way) of far from equilibrium phenomena such as turbulent dynamics or self-organized criticality - in biology, econophysics, geophysics and astrophysics.
(3) Social Networks. (more soon)
For Students:
Complexity Science offers exciting opportunities for students and postdoctoral fellows to gain not only experience in particular problems, but to consider how their understanding plays out in various contexts. Individuals or teams work with experts in different fields to tackle problems of mutual interest. One strategy my group uses to address the challenges of transdisciplinary work is frequent informal group meetings devoted to discussing topics across a wide scope (biology, signalling-metabolic networks, archeology, the internet, p2p networks, gene networks, tokomak plasmas, terrorism, markets, world of warcraft ...). These discussions are either led by one of the students, postdocs, or by experts that we invite from other disciplines at the University of Calgary and around the world. In this way and others, younger physicists learn to discuss scientific problems with scientists (and even nonscientists) who have different training, and to quantify the knowledge gained in that process using mathematical methods and computer simulations. These models can then be tested directly against quantitative and reproducible empirical data -- leading to the possibility to falsify models and thereby develop an improved understanding of those complex and often complicated systems. It is the universality of certain principles in theoretical physics that lead to nontrivial predictions which we exploit to tackle all these different problems. The Complexity Science group attracts some of the best students in the world, including a Rhodes scholar, and has in place the technical expertise to guide them effectively. We strive to maintain an active visitors program as well.
Highlights: 
- Get a general introduction to research in complexity
- What is complexity science
- Download a curriculum vitae
- What my son, Daniel Bak, thinks about what we do, and his proof that God does not exist.
- My h index is 24.
My email address is maya dot paczuski at ucalgary dot ca: