ASSYST Bursaries Recipients Biographies

The science of complex systems teaches that variety is necessary for systems to adapt to changing environments. In an attempt to increase variety in the CS community, ASSYST has again this year offered bursaries to support female scientists, minority groups and young researchers in attending ECCS’11. The following 32 people have been offered bursaries.

In return for this financial support they have been asked to fulfil various criteria including engaging with the Complex Systems Society, networking with other young researchers, helping with the improvement and usefulness of CSS webpages, and providing reports about the conference. Their short biographies are shown below:

Erika Fille T. Legara

I am Erika Fille T. Legara from the University of the Philippines Diliman where I recently obtained a PhD in Physics (April 2011). My dissertation was on the physics of complex systems, specifically focusing on the applications of ABM and complex networks on real systems: multilevel marketing companies, competing telecommunication companies, and news and media framing. As a fresh Ph.D. graduate, I am expected to start doing research on my own, formulating my own research problems. Given my research background and interests, I believe that attending the ECCS’11 would give me the opportunity to further widen my perspectives on complexity science and its possible applications to the study of real-­?world issues, including social and policy implementation issues. More importantly, the conference will allow me to extend my knowledge of the current trends in complex systems research. It cannot be overemphasized that complex systems is a rich and stimulating field. The idea that there is still a lot to learn, discover, and develop to understand these complex systems always keeps me excited. Furthermore, I hope to share whatever knowledge I will gain from the conference to my colleagues here in the Philippines.

Ali Sanayei

Ali Sanayei was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1987. He earned his Mathematics and Physics diploma in Iran, in 2007. Then he started studying Electrical Engineering (Control) at Sahand University of Technology in Tabriz, Iran, and he is still an undergraduate student in that university. Moreover, he is a member of American Physical Society and IEEE.
His main research interests are beyond the Electrical Engineering and could be summarized in “Complex, Nonlinear, and Evolutionary Dynamical Systems” including complexity measurement, chaotic dynamics, controlling chaos, evolutionary dynamics, fuzzy logic, and philosophy of science. Ali has written more than ten scientific articles in journals and international conference proceedings and presented some of them orally in some universities and countries. In addition, in 2011 he was selected as one of the Outstanding Reviewers of International Journal of Engineering and Technology.
The 2011 Student Bursary Award from ASSYST and CSS is a great opportunity for me to attend in European Conference on Complex Systems in Vienna to meet outstanding scientists in complex systems to promote my thoughts, meet other young researchers to share my experiences with them, and present my recent achievements in complex systems to elevate my works. In this regard, I am so thankful to ASSYST and CSS.

Junhuan Zhang

PhD student, Supervisor: Dr Tiziana Di Matteo
Financial Mathematics Group
Department of Mathematics, King’s College London
Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom.
Motivation
ECCS’11 – European Conference on Complex Systems is one of the most important annual events in Complex Systems Science. It aims to provide a broad forum for the diverse communities engaged in Complex Systems research. I am very interested in the ics of the conference, which are interacting populations and crisis. That’s why I want to attend the conference. Furthermore, I want to present my research through this conference and hope that I can get some suggestions on it. Also, I hope that I can broaden my horizon in those ic and get some new idea from the conference. What’s more, I am happy that I can make some new friends there.
Education
9/10-Present (Ph.D.) Financial Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, King’s College London.
Research Interests
Econophysics
Multi-agent model
Statistical analysis of financial data
Publications
Junhuan Zhang and Jun Wang, Modeling and Simulation of the Market Fluctuations by the Finite Range Contact Systems, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, Vol. 18, pp. 910-925, 2010.
Junhuan Zhang, Jun Wang and Jiguang Shao, Finite-Range Contact Process on the Market Return Intervals Distributions, Advances in Complex Systems, Vol. 13, Issue. 5, pp. 643-657, 2010.
Junhuan Zhang and Jun Wang, Fractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis of Chinese Energy Markets, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, Vol. 20, Issue. 11, pp. 3769-3783, 2010.

Raffaello Morales

Raffaello Morales did his undergraduate studies in Rome at the La Sapienza University where he graduate in 2009 with marks. He then moved to London for doing his postgraduate studies in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College. Since January 2011 he is doing a PhD in Mathematical Finance at King’s College London and his interests are Econophysics and the study of financial markets as complex networks. In this field he’s been working in the past four months and he is very willing to get more inputs from all possible related ics. Along with his studies in Maths and Physics he’s also carrying on his studies in Music. He’s been awarded the final Diploma at the Italian Conservatory in 2009 and he is regularly doing upgrading courses and giving concerts in the UK, Austria and Italy.

The ECCS’11 conference is the perfect set for having the possibility to discuss the work done hitherto and to get in touch with people that might be interested in the same ics. I’m sure this will trigger further discussions and new ideas for developing the research. Being aware of the worldwide reputation of this conference I’m really looking forward to getting the most out of it.

Olesya Mryglod

My name is Olesya Mryglod. I am 29 and I am a junior researcher of the Laboratory for Statistical Physics of Complex Systems of the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics (Lviv, Ukraine). Since I graduated from the Polytechnic University and have Ph.D. degree in the “Information Systems” area, the circle of my scientific interests includes interdisciplinary ics such as: modeling and analysis of complex networks and systems, data analysis and knowledge discovering. In particular, I apply different approaches to study scientometrical objects. For example, editorial process in scientific journals was the main object of my Ph.D. research.

I am happy to have the opportunity to participate in the “European Conference on Complex Systems”. This is the great chance not only to meet interesting people but also to share the results, learn much about new trends and tasks in the field of Complex Systems. The most intriguing thing for me is the possibility to gather the specialists with diverse scientific interests together in order to study complex systems of different nature.

Pavel Em

My name is Pavel Em. I was born in 1987 in Partizansk town, Russia. I graduated high-school with silver medal in 2005 and Far Eastern National University (Vladivostok) with excellence, in 2010. My major is economic geography. I continue my education as post-graduate in Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. My researches are focused on geographical studying processes of urbanization and development of urban settlement systems. The results of my researches were published in 17 scientific articles in different magazines and 1 monograph. I got Award of Russian President for talented young people in 2010.

I really want to attend ECCS’11 because this is place where researchers of systems from different sectors will come and announce results of their scientific researches. It is also good opportunity to me to represent result of my researches, compare level of it and get critique to it. Besides, ECCS’11 will help me to find colleagues around Europe and communicate with them in future.

Parongama Sen I am an associate professor in the Department of Physics, University of Calcutta. I had done my PhD from Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (1993), Kolkata and was a post doctoral fellow in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and University of Cologne, Germany. After a few brief stints at undergraduate teaching in colleges, I joined University of Calcutta in 2000. I was also a regular associate of Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, from 2003-2010 and at present an associate teacher of Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. I am presently engaged in research in theoretical Statistical physics with emphasis on phase transitions and critical phenomena. I am mainly using the tools of statistical physics in various fields like social physics (opinion dynamics models and econophysics problems), complex networks (both static and dynamics properties), percolation, classical and quantum random walks etc. Since many of these ics will be addressed in the ECCS’11 conference, it would be immensely helpful for me to take part in the conference. I also look forward to having fruitful discussions with the other participants of the conference. From my earlier experiences, attending international conferences of this nature have always inspired new ideas.

Alessio Cardillo

My name is Alessio Cardillo and I am a PhD student at University of Zaragoza (Spain). During the past five years (as an undergraduate student), I have worked on complex networks theory under the supervision of Prof. Vito Latora (University of Catania, Italy), focusing on the structural properties of complex networks. In particular, I have studied urban networks and the relation between centrality indexes and density of commercial activity. In 2011, I have started the PhD in physics under the supervision of Dr. Jesus Gomez-Gardenes (University of Zaragoza) focusing on evolutionary game theory on complex networks. In particular, my studies focus on the emergence of collective behaviour, such as cooperation. The European Conference on Complex Systems will give me not only the opportunity to present some results of my research but, more importantly, the possibility to meet, share ideas, and develop relationships with people that can improve it. Also, the variety of ics treated in the conference will be of great help to keep my view on complex systems as wide as possible and also to be updated about the state of the art in fields different than mine.

Chesnokova Oxana Igorevna

I entered the faculty of physics and techniques of Ural State Technical University in 2003. I chose the speciality “Computer systems and technologies in technical physics” and graduated from the University in 2008 with grade point average 4,77 (from 5 maximum possible). The ic of my degree work was “The model of light energy conversion in chloroplasts”. Later on, as a result of this work, the article under the title “Analytical model of ion transport and conversion of light energy in chloroplasts” was published (Melkikh A. V., Seleznev V. D., Chesnokova O. I. Journal of Theoretical Biology 264 (2010) 702–710). Since 2008 I have been studying postgraduate program and researching the behavior and possible strategies of organisms, which are able to move and replicate at the early stages of life origin. My advisor is professor Melkikh A.V.

I want to attend ECCS’11 because its’ ics are extremely close to my current research work direction. It will be a great opportunity to learn more about other researches and researchers methods, discuss others and mine, get some new ideas and information. Finally, I’m sure that all above-listed advantages will inspire me for further work.

Mauricio Girardi

My name is Mauricio Girardi and I was born in south Brazil. I’m a physicist and have the Master and Doctor degrees in Statistical Mechanics. My current position is as adjoint professor in the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina where I teach classes in physics and mathematics. By employing computer simulations of simple models with Monte Carlo and event-driven methods I focused my research in four different fields: the anomalous static and dynamic properties of water, the aggregation of amphiphilic molecules in micelles, the triboelectrization of granular media, and the dynamics of competing populations. The last research ic is in the early stages, and some effort must be dedicated to it. In order to be in contact with the state-of-the-art of this field and with the main researchers, I intend to participate to the ECCS’11. There, I would like to share some results for a model of cyclic predator-prey model studied by a new simulational method. I expect that my research can contribute to the discussions about ecological systems, and that the collaborative ambient of the conference may bring some new ideas to my work.

Zineb Mimouni Born February 18, 1963
Moroccan
Professor of Physics
Cadi Ayyad University –Marrakesh -Morocco
Formation
2007 Ph.D. thesis of Moroccan state, Colloidal Suspensions, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh
1990 Ph.D. thesis (France), Condensed matter, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.
1987 DEA in Physics, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.
1986 MA in Physics, Cadi Ayyad University
Education
1987-1988 Monitor lab, Faculty of Sciences, Nice-Sophia antipolis
1989-1990 A.T.E.R, Faculty of Sciences, Nice-Sophia antipolis
1990-1991 A.T.E.R, Faculty of Sciences, Nice-Sophia antipolis
Since September 1991, Professor of Physics, Marrakesh, FSTG
Since September 2009, coordinator of the Licence ST SPI, FSTG, Marrakesh
Publications
G. Bosssis, C. Mathis, Z. Mimouni and Paparoditis, Europhys. Lett.,11 (2) 133-137 (1990)
Z. Mimouni, C. Mathis and G. Bossis, Progr. Colloid. Polym. Sci., 82 (1990)
Z. Mimouni, C. Mathis and G. Bossis, Progr. Colloid. Polym. Sci., 84 (1991)
Z. Mimouni, C.R. Acad. Sci., Physique 8 (2007) 115-120
Z. Mimouni and Hassan Chehouani, Colloid Journal, Vol. 69. No. 6. (2007).
Z. MIimouni and R. Limage , ZAMP, vol 60, n°3 (2009)
Z. Mimouni and J.A.D Wattis, physica A, 388, pp 1067-1073 (2009)
About the participation to ECCS 2011 I would like to attend the ECCS 2011, to be informed of progress in research on complex media, myself I am working on colloidal suspensions under an electric field. I’d like to meet researchers in mathematics of complex systems, to work together and make progress in my research.

Michele Tizzoni

I received a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Torino, Italy, in 2007. Currently, I am a 4th year doctoral student, working at the Computational Epidemiology Laboratory of the ISI Foundation in Torino, Italy.

During my graduate studies I directed my research interests towards the field of complex systems and particularly to the application of complex networks theory to epidemiology. In detail, my research activity focuses on the study of human mobility networks and how human mobility at different geographic scales affects the spreading of infectious diseases.

Most of my work has been done within the EpiFor research project, an European Research Council funded project whose main goal is the development of a novel computational tool for the realistic modeling of infectious diseases spread at the global scale, the Global Epidemic and Mobility model.

Since ECCS is one of the most prominent events for the European complex systems research community, attending the conference will be a great opportunity for me to present my research work and interact with senior researchers of the field. I am sure that the ECCS will inspire new research ideas and will be the ideal setting to start new collaborations with other researchers.

Carlos G. Acevedo Rocha Carlos G. Acevedo Rocha was born in Mexico-City where he studied microbiology and chemistry at the National Politechnique Institute (IPN). After his diploma thesis in oncogenomics at the research center CINVESTAV-IPN, he moved to Munich where he wrote his PhD in genetic code engineering and biocatalysis at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry under the guidance of Prof. Nediljko Budisa. After defending his dissertation in Summer 2010, he took a postdoctoral position related to science policy of synthetic biology in the same lab. He is member of the World Association of Young Scientists (www.ways.org) and he actively organizes interdisciplinary conferences. Since May 2011, he is postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Manfred Reetz at the Faculty of Chemistry in the Phillips-Universität-Marburg. He is interested in directed and experimental evolution of proteins and cells, as well as open access in science and complex adaptative systems. This is the main reason why Carlos wants to attend the European Conference on Complex Systems. By doing so, he hopes to meet excellent researchers working at the interface of physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, and other scientific disciplines having interests in the fields of synthetic biology, xeno-biology, artificial life and transdisciplinarity as an educative approach.

Jing Qin

My name is Jing Qin and I received my Ph.D. from Nankai University (China) in 2010, under the supervision of Prof. Christian M. Reidys. My thesis dealt with the mathematical models of RNA tertiary structures and RNA-RNA interactions. Now I am a female post-doc working with Prof. Peter F. Stadler in the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, Leipzig, Germany. My recent research interest is focus on RNA energy landscape which is also can be interpreted as a complex system.

I would like to attend ECCS’11 since the main ic of this conference is highly related to my recent research subject. I am sure that the pioneered techniques going to be presented in the ECCS’11 will help me to make progress in my own research. Also I view the conference as a great opportunity for me to discuss my subject with the other researchers who are interested in the same ic and seek for opportunities to collaborate with them.

Andrzej Jarynowski

From the very beginning of my education I have connected natural science with social science and biology (my background is socio- and econo-physics at University of Wroclaw and mathematics for economics and commerce at Technical University of Wroclaw). During my master programmes I attended scientific meetings of UNESCO: Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies (where ics like opinion formation, model of prison riots, prison dilemma, game theory as well as more biological ones: food webs, victim-predator models, population dynamics and so on were discussed). It made me interested in the field of complex systems. I’ve tried to use my interdisciplinary base to model such phenomena as corruption, calcium spiking, spread of MRSA and H1N1. I’m currently a first year PhD student in Department of Theory of Complex Systems at Jagiellonian University working in parallel on epidemiological modeling as well as social change project.

Attendance on ECCS’ 2011 will give me an opportunity to present my current results and listen to feedback of complex system society. There will be also a possibility to network with other youth researchers from all Europe.

José García

My name is José García, I was born in Venezuela in 1988. I graduated in physics in 2010 at Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) and I’m currently enrolled in a PhD program at UCV.

My research activities are focused on complex systems, cellular automata and statistical mechanics. I did my undergraduate thesis in Synchronization of Cellular Automata and I’m currently working in nonlinear forecast of complex totally discrete systems I’m also a member of the complex system group and the nonlinear group at UCV.

The main reason I wanted to attend to the ECCS event is because it’s a great opportunity to meet researchers from different fields of science from all over the world, and to gain some perspective about the different styles of working in other countries.

From the whole ECCS event I do expect to gain some insight of how different fields of knowledge converge to the study of complexity, what does complexity means interdisciplinary and what are the current researches in the complex system area. I also expect to establish contact with other researchers with common interest in order to share information about our currently research.

Sidi Mohammed Bouguima

I studied for my doctorate at Tlemcen University in Algeria where I was awarded my Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, studying free boundary problems. Then, I was appointed a position as a lecturer where I taught:
Differential and Integral calculus
Differential Equations and Boundary value problems
Functional Analysis and Nonlinear Analysis
Partial Differential Equations

My mathematical interests are mainly Applied Partial Differential Equations. I am interesting in developing and studying models in ecology, epidemiology, ecology, treatment of waste water and populations Dynamics.

In the period between 1999 and 2003, I was involved with Pau University (France) in the programme : Environment and Population Dynamics, and in the 2008, I was a member of the programme Treatment of Waste Water with IRD, France.

Some of my referred papers are
On a free boundary Problem, (with S .Bensid) Nonlinear Analysis TMA 68(2008) , 2328-2348
Spatial Structure in a juvenile-Adult Model (with S.Fkih and W.Hennaoui) in Nonlinear Analysis, Real World and Applications 9(2008), 1184-1201
Existence Result for Impulsive Third Order Periodic Boundary Value Problems (with Z. Benbouziane and A .Boucherif) Applied Mathematics and Computation (206) 2008, 728-737.

In 2004, I was awarded the Maurice Audin Prize from the French Mathematical Society. Away from the university, I enjoy listening music, reading history and travelling.

At the European Conference on Complex System which will be held at Vienna, I will:
Understand relevant research achievements given by experts in the field .
Update my knowledge in the area of Complex Systems.
Maintain cooperative networks and relationships with the research community.

Yurij Holovatch

Yurij Holovatch was born on 16 June, 1957 in Lviv, Ukraine. Doctor of physical and mathematical sciences (1998), Professor (2005), full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (2006). Graduated from Ivan Franko State University of Lviv (1979). Ph. D. thesis: Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics (Kyiv, 1984). After postgraduate studies he works in the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Scienses of Ukraine, in 2010 he founded a Laboratory for statistical physics of complex systems in this Institute. An invited professor at: Ivan

Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine), Johannes Kepler Univerität (Linz, Austria), Université Henri Poincaré (Nancy, France), Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv, Ukraine). Scientific interests concern physics of macromolecules (ological properties of complex polymers), theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena (application of field theory methods to the studies of critical phenomena in condensed matter physics), exotic problems of statistical physics (application of methods of statistical physics to the analysis of many-particle systems of non-physical nature), history of science.

As usually, participation in the conference means for me learning about new results and presenting results of myself and my collaborators. My specific field of interest related to this particular conference is complex networks (critical behaviour in complex networks, complex networks resilience to attacks, transport networks) and scientometrics.

Agata Fronczak

I am a theoretical physicist specializing in statistical physics, with a special emphasis on theories of phase transitions. My additional research interests focus on the application of statistical mechanics, discrete mathematics, and computer science toward the understanding of complex networks in social and economic systems. Since 2002, I have authored or co-authored about 30 scientific papers, which collected more than 300 citations (SCI). I am also an author of two books (in Polish): Thermodynamics and equilibrium statistical physics: a course with problems and solutions (2006) and World of complex networks – from physics to the internet (2008). My interdisciplinary interests have been developed in several European projects, where I collaborated with partners from other research fields such as economy, computer science and social sciences.

In private, together with dr Piotr Fronczak, we are married couple of physicists with two little boys. We desperately try to separate our professional and private life.

European Conferences on Complex Systems offer a unique possibility to present and also discuss different interdisciplinary results / projects. I will show interesting results about international trade during the forthcoming ECCS 2011. With my presentation I hope to interest economists and to evoke their critique.

Funda Atun

PhD Researcher
Spatial Planning and Urban Development, Department of Architecture and Planning
Politecnico di Milano, Milan-ITALY

I am going to attend to ECCS’11 as a PhD researcher at Spatial and Urban Planning department, at Politecnico di Milano. My PhD research is on improving London`s complex transportation network for flood risk. I am looking at ways in which the London`s complex transportation system may be improved or adopted in order to help to reduce the risk of tidal flooding to the network. I have encountered European Conference on Complex Systems while working on complexity theory to find some insights for understanding the nature of dynamic city systems. The reason why I am attending to ECCS’11 is that there are excellent prospects for further studies. The idea of attending to a conference on the issue of complexity where I can deepen my knowledge truly excites me. In this manner in the conference I could have the opportunity to share the results of my ongoing research and to improve them by discussing with other scholars and by gaining experiences from talks. For these reasons I am very much excited to take part in ECCS’11.

Angel Akio Tateishi

I’m Angel Akio Tateishi, a Brazilian born in 1986. I joined the undergraduate physics course in 2005 and concludes in 2008, during this period also concluded a technical course in music,both at the State University of Maringa. Yet at the same university, in the second half of 2010got a master’s degree in physics studying anomalous diffusion (dissertation entitled:Development of the concept of diffusion: From Fourier to Comb-Model) and that same semesterI entered the doctoral course following the same previous research and I am also taking the first steps in studying complex systems, which is being extensively studied by the research group to which I belong.

Thus, the opportunity to participate in this conference is very important to know the recent research, as well as interact with other researchers.

Fernando José Antonio

I got bachelor’s degree in physics at Maringá University State (2007) and master’s degree in liquid crystals (Physics Of The Condensed State Of Substance) at Maringá University State (2009). Since last year, I have been developing studies for obtaining the doctor degree in the group of complex systems at Maringá University State. For this reason, I think that participate on this conference represents a good way to meet people studying similar problems, increase my knowledge about the ic and its branches of applications.

Christian Beck

Prof. Christian Beck is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Queen Mary, University of London. He obtained his MSc and PhD in Physics at the Technical University of Aachenand spent some time as a postdoc in Warwick, Copenhagen, Budapest and Maryland, before being appointed in London.

He has a broad research interest covering generalized statistical mechanics methods for complex systems, spatio-temporal chaos and stochastic processes, and is author of more than 100 publications. Together with Boltzmann-medalist Eddie Cohen (Rockefeller University, NY) he has introduced the superstatistics concept, a useful method to describe complex systems with time scale separation. Applications include turbulent flows, scattering processes in high energy physics, traffic delay statistics, mathematical finance, as well as medical and biological applications. Another research area of his are stochastically quantized field theories, in particular novel types of dark energy models based on chaotic scalar fields.

Christian Beck’s early work deals with deriving Langevin equations from deterministic chaotic dynamics using functional Central Limit Theorems. He is also well-known for his book with Friedrich Schloegl `Thermodynamics of Chaotic Systems’, which describes the basic ideas of the thermodynamic formalism of dynamical systems in an easy-going way. At ECCS’11 in Vienna he will present a talk on superstatistics in High Energy Physics.

K.P Hari

Biography:
Seminal encounters
My journey began 18 years ago when I got an opportunity to attend a wonderful talk by on ‘ecology’ by a noted criminal lawyer. The talk was packed with concepts of natural capital, conservation, mobilization, sustainability and a broad-based ecological relationship. It struck a deep chord within me. A few days later, reading a cover story in Fortune magazine (January 1995) on Bill Gates and his new-found interest in understanding complex processes of organizations, the human brain, technology and biotechnology stoked my allure for complex systems.

Active search and inquiry
I immersed myself completely in texts (magazine articles, research papers, essays, books, interviews, biographies) mined from esoteric domains of cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, neurosciences, ecology, technology, cybernetics, social sciences and architecture. The intense process of search, assimilation and reflection had begun to change the way I perceived these systems.

Visual complexity
In an abstract attempt to articulate my view, I began doodling on loose sheets of paper and in notebooks using ball point pen, thus becoming an integral part of my thinking process. As my idea of ‘complexity’ began to evolve, my sketches started assuming network-like forms. I continue to produce a new configuration almost on a daily basis.

How will I benefit from ECCS’11?
This conference will help me to network and develop collaborative relationships with other researchers on complex systems and share my visual perspective to a global audience

Oleh I. Shpotyuk

Oleh I. Shpotyuk was born in Ukraine, in 1958.

He received the M.Sc. degree on radiophysics and electronics and Ph.D. degree on solid state physics from the Physics Faculty of Lviv State University, Ukraine, in 1980 and 1986, respectively. In 1991, he received Dr.Sc. degree from Institute of Physics, Salaspils, Latvia for thesis on relaxation-degradation phenomena in amorphous solids. Since 1999, O. Shpotyuk is Professor titular on solid state physics announced at Lviv Polytechnic National University.

Since 1980, Oleh Shpotyuk joins Lviv Scientific Research Institute of Materials of SRC “Carat”, where he is currently on Research Director position. The most of his scientific career is devoted to fundamental and applied problems of modern materials science, structural disordering in solids, externally-induced phenomena in glasses and ceramics. He is the author of some methodological resolutions in nanoscale materials science, the concept of ological defect formation in covalent-bonded matter, computational cluster-modelling approach to unified atomic-void-species structure of solids. Your recent activities also deal with self-adaptability effects in complex network-forming systems, their phenomenological characterization and experimental testing.

Prof. O. Shpotyuk is a member of the European Physical Society (EPS). Since 2007, he is academician of the Academy of Technological Sciences of Ukraine.

Giovanni Petri

I am a PhD student in Complexity and Networks Programme of Imperial College London. I studied theoretical physics, cosmology in particular, but currently my research focuses on dynamics on complex networks, especially regarding the interaction between information and flows in traffic networks. Recently, I also started working also on the features of human mobility, with special regard to the effects of boundaries and memory.

I am looking forward to take part to ECCS’11 because it’s a unique occasion to meet personally and discuss face to face with the people behind some of the very interesting papers out there. Email’s all good, but it still doesn’t cut it when compared to direct interaction.

Secondly, I am confident ECCS’11 will sport a few excellent talks and I would not want to miss them.

Roseli Wedemann

I am a researcher at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and, in the past years, much of our recent work regards the search for neuronal network mechanisms, whose emergent states underlie behavioral aspects traditionally studied by psychiatry, psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Our motivations range from understanding psychopathologies, in the hope of contributing to the comprehension of methods of treatment, to investigations of basic mechanisms for the development of artificial intelligence and consciousness. The artificial neural networks we developed, to illustrate the functional models for the mental processes which we describe, have interesting properties that can be studied within the context of complex networks. We have used some concepts commonly used in the approach of complex networks, such as node degree distributions, clustering coefficients, and other statistical mechanical quantities and tried to relate network structure and ology with system dynamics. These themes are very much related to the ics of the ECCS´11 conference. The opportunity to attend the conference talks and discussions, with other colleagues also working on related issues, should be an opportunity to enrich our studies and to trigger the development of new ideas that can help to further enhance future developments of our models.

Paul Expert

I am currently a PhD student in the Complexity & Networks Group at Imperial College London. My background is in Physics (statistical mechanics), I obtained a master in Physics from the University of Geneva and then went on to complement my education with a master in Statistics. My current research interests are mainly focused on networks, more specifically on the characterisation of their structure, both at the node and at the mesoscopic (community) levels, and the interplay between the structure and the dynamics taking place on it.

The ECCS conference being the main European event on complex system, it is a perfect place to meet researchers with a broad range of interests. It also has the advantage of not being focused on networks, thus giving a less biased view of the community’s interests and opening interesting exchange opportunities and possibly new collaborations on unexpected ics.

Jan Engelhardt

Since 2006 I study computer science at the University of Leipzig. Early in my curriculum I joined the bioinformatics lab of Peter Stadler for my bachelor thesis on non-coding RNAs. Through his affiliation with the Santa Fe Institute for Complex Systems I got interested in complex sciences. I was even able to visit it twice during my master studies. I’m currently working on my master thesis about genomic imprinting in collaboration with Jon Wilkins. I also did an internship in Vienna during my study. I worked two month in the lab of Denise Barlow and one with Ivo Hofacker. I would like to profit from the unique environment of the ECCS with a large number of excellent speakers and experts in complex sciences. I hope that I can learn more about the cutting edge of complex sciences and molecular biology at the ECCS and get in touch with other people working in this field.

Barbora Trubenova

My name is Barbora Trubenova and I am a PhD student at the University of Manchester. I received a master degree in Biophysics at the Comenius University in Slovakia in 2009. However, I was always interested in biology, so I obtained a bachelor degree in Biology as well from the same university. Currently, I managed to fuse both of my interests and I am focusing on the problem of evolution of social behaviour, especially cooperation and altruism. Specifically, I am using mathematical modelling to investigate the role of genes of social partners on the phenotype of the focal individual and its consequences for the evolution of social traits.

I hope that the ECCS’11 conference will allow me to learn more about research methods used in complex systems and to get some new ideas for the future research. I am also looking forward to meet other researchers working on similar problems and I am hoping to receive some feedback on my own work, which would help me with my further studies.

Evangelia Panagakou

My name is Evangelia (or Evelyn for simplicity) Panagakou. I am Greek. I studied Physics (B.S.) in the Physics Department of the University of Athens in Athens, Greece, and Applied Mathematics (M.S.) in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA, USA. Currently I am a first year PhD student in the Statistical Mechanics and Nonlinear Dynamics Laboratory, Institute of Physical Chemistry, at the National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, in Athens, Greece. My work is related to synchronization phenomena in nonlinear dynamical systems. My group’s work focuses on non linear systems of multiple species, some acting as predators and others acting as preys. We study the behavior of these species and the system’s stability, under different values of control parameters. Applications can be found in biology, chemistry, ecology, sociology and other aspects.

I would like to participate in the ECCS ’11 for many reasons. First of all, I will learn about theory ics and applications of Complex Systems and this may help me produce new ideas towards the improvement of my work. Moreover, I will have the opportunity to discuss about my team’s research and get useful feedback for the continuation of my PhD. Finally, I will meet people who work on the same or similar fields with me and in this way I could build a basis for future collaborations. In total I believe that the experience of attending this conference will offer me inspiration and extra motivation for my work!