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October 29, 2007

Conference: SIAM Annual Meeting 2008

The SIAM Annual Meeting for 2008 features networks ("Networks: biological, social and Internet") as one of the main themes. If this meeting is anything like the SIAM Dynamical Systems meeting in 2007, then there will be some interesting minisymposia on networks. The deadline for minisymposia proposals is 14 January, 2008. I'm not sure if you have to be a SIAM member to propose one.

SIAM Annual Meeting 2008

8 June, 2008 at San Diego, CA

Themes:


  • Computational science & engineering
  • Data mining
  • Dynamical systems
  • Geosciences
  • Imaging science
  • Linear & multilinear algebra
  • Networks: biological, social and Internet
  • Scientific software: enabling complex simulations

posted October 29, 2007 08:38 AM in Conferences and Workshops | permalink | Comments (0)

October 28, 2007

Workshop: NIPS Workshop on Statistical Models of Networks

NIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems, although in terms of topics, the N could probably be dropped without anyone noticing) has an interesting looking workshop coming up. Sadly, I think I will have to miss it, although there should be some interesting talks (Mark Handcock and Stephen Fienberg I know will give good ones), and it's hard to beat Whistler as a conference location.

NIPS Workshop on Statistical Models of Networks

December 8, 2007 at Whistler, Canada

Organizers: Lise Getoor (UMD), Raphael Gottardo (UBC), Kevin Murphy (UBC), and Eric Xing (CMU)

Description: The purpose of the workshop is to bring together people from different disciplines - computer science, statistics, biology, physics, social science, etc - to discuss foundational issues in the modeling of network and relational data. In particular, we hope to discuss various open research issues, such as:

  • How to represent graphs at varying levels of abstraction, whose topology is potentially condition-specific and time-varying
  • How to combine techniques from the graphical model structure learning community with techniques from the statistical network modeling community
  • How to integrate relational data with other kinds of data (e.g., gene expression, sequence or text data).

posted October 28, 2007 08:33 AM in Conferences and Workshops | permalink | Comments (0)

October 26, 2007

Equations as expression

The Edge and the Swiss Serpentine Gallery have posted the results of asking scientists and artists "What is your formula?" The results are various scribblings and typesettings of physical and social relationships, put in the form of a mathematical equation.

There's a wide diversity in the set -- some are kind of banal, some ideas make several appearances, and some are contentious opinions dressed up in math -- but some are both suggestive and interesting. I particularly liked Sean Carroll's hierarchy of fundamental scales in physics, spanning 60 orders of magnitude, David Deutsch's self-consistent time-traveling quantum computer, Lisa Randall's 5-dimensional solution to Einstein's equations for gravity, and Drew Endy's "mutation without representation" .

posted October 26, 2007 07:45 AM in Pleasant Diversions | permalink | Comments (1)

October 25, 2007

Untangling the knots

Attention conservation notice: this is a posting about a seminar at SFI.

The State of String Theory, with David Gross

Friday, 26 October, 2007 at 12:15 PM in the Noyce Conference Room (Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe NM)

David Gross won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on asymptotic freedom, and is currently the Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at (and director of) the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UC - Santa Barbara. So, in short, this should be interesting...

posted October 25, 2007 02:35 AM in Scientifically Speaking | permalink | Comments (4)

October 24, 2007

Turning a sphere inside out

If you hang out with math nerds enough, you might eventually hear them talk about crazy things like turning a sphere inside out, without cutting or pinching its surface. In some circles, I think this is the math-nerd equivalent of a pissing contest. Well, I've hung out with them enough to hear it, but never gotten a good answer about how to do it. This very nicely produced little video (complete with Pixar-esque animation and human narration) explains it in a very accessible way.

(Tip to Scott Aaronson.)

posted October 24, 2007 01:13 PM in Pleasant Diversions | permalink | Comments (0)

October 23, 2007

SFI is hiring

From personal experience, I can attest to the fact that SFI is a great place to work, do science, learn stuff, explore new areas, and otherwise build your career. Start your LaTeX engines! (Deadline is Nov. 15, a scant 3 weeks away!)

Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities at the Santa Fe Institute

The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is selectively seeking applications for Postdoctoral Fellows for appointments beginning Fall 2008.

Fellows are appointed for up to three years during which they pursue research questions of their own design and are encouraged to transcend disciplinary lines. SFI’s unique structure and resources enable Fellows to collaborate with members of the SFI faculty, other Fellows, and researchers from around the world.

As the leader in multidisciplinary research, SFI has no formal programs or departments and we accept applications from any field. Research topics span the full range of natural and social sciences and often make connections with the humanities. Most research at SFI is theoretical and/or computational in nature, although some research includes an empirical component in collaboration with other institutions.

The compensation package includes a competitive salary and excellent health and retirement benefits. As full participants in the SFI community, Fellows are encouraged to invite speakers, organize workshops and working groups and engage in research outside their field. Funds are available to support this full range of research activities. Applications are welcome from candidates in any country. Successful foreign applicants must acquire an acceptable visa (usually a J-1) as a condition of employment. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply.

For complete information and application instructions, please follow the link to http://www.santafe.edu/postdocapp08.

The online application process opens October 15, 2007. Application deadline is November 15, 2007.

posted October 23, 2007 06:22 PM in Simply Academic | permalink | Comments (0)