About Aaron Bramson
I am currently a fourth-year complex systems graduate student at the University of Michigan in a joint program with the political science and philosophy departments. Before coming to Ann Arbor I completed a Masters of Science degree in mathematics at Northeastern University in Boston. Before that I was some kind of PhD student in Economics at Boston University, mostly studying game theory. I graduated from the University of Florida in 1999 with a B.S. in Economics from the school of business administration and a B.A. in philosophy. I originally planned to go directly to a PhD program in philosophy after graduating, but since I was not accepted at any remarkable schools, I decided to spend a year in Japan learning Japanese, teaching English, and doing freelance web design. I plan to earn a PhD at the University of Michigan, hopefully in complex systems (though they do not currently offer such a degree) but probably the joint PoliSci\Philosophy PhD (or both). In the interim I am pursuing research down several avenues across many disciplines.
My research interests include a wide array of topics from microbiology to cosmology, but mostly things in between. Predominantly I consider myself a social scientist, though being true to the nature of complex systems, I strongly believe that we can gain a great deal of insight into the mathematical and computational underpinnings of complex adaptive social systems by investigating physical and biological systems. My primary research goal is to establish a strong conceptual and methodological foundation for complexity science; this involves developing sophisticated techniques of investigation, devising dynamic and insightful measures, and undertaking a deep conceptual analysis.
To accomplish these research goals will require thorough knowledge in computer modeling, mathematics, statistics, and philosophy. It also requires substantial knowledge of several fields in the physical and social sciences including, but not limited to, artificial intelligence, evolutionary theory, economics, anthropology, physics, ecology, molecular biology, engineering, and psychology to name a few. It will also require a good bit of time.
I intend to use this blog to present and develop research and project ideas as well as comment on the status on complex systems as a discipline. The resource section includes papers and slides from presentations that I have created related to complex systems. Some are related to a particular project, others are more general, and still others are primarily pedagogical. Ken and I have had the opportunity to offer tutorials on agent-based modeling of complex adaptive systems; we have provided some of that material here and we welcome your inquiries and suggestions.
If you'd like more information about me, information not related to complex systems, then please visit my personal web site at www.bramson.net (currently down). You can also contact me at bramson@umich.edu. Feedback on posts is very welcome. Unfortunately we had to turn off commenting because SPAMbots would fill the comment sections with viagra advertisements and things like that. But we DO want to hear from you so feel free to send me a message.