The Center for Complex Systems Studies at Kalamazoo College has been established to contribute to the education of both science and non-science students by adopting highly inter- and transdisciplinary approaches; to promote the building of the bridge between disciplines of natural sciences on one side, and social sciences and humanities on the other side.

The establishment of the CCSS has been supported by the Luce Foundation within the framawork of the Henry R. Luce Professorship Program.

A few words about complex systems:

Complex phenomena occur at very different levels of organization of natural systems and human society. Specifically, the understanding of mixed natural - social systems (such as ecological - socioeconomical systems) need the application of the new methods of the theory of complex systems. The existence of similarities between the structures of different systems give the possibility to transfer methods of analysis from one system to another. For example, the spreading of epidemics, ideas, opinions and drug addiction can be described by very similar models. To mention another example, network theory offers methods to understand the structure and dynamics of the brain, of interacting social groups, food webs, financial and market networks, etc.

Activities of the CCSS

The CCSS organize the building of the new program; is the regular meeting place of faculty, students and visitors; contributes to the bidirectional problem acquisition and technology transfer by organizing lectures, journal clubs, half and/or one day minisymposia and annual or biannanual workshops setting up a Laboratory for Simulations The Center is morally supported and partially supervised by an Advisory Board. People from within and outside of the U.S agreed to be members of the Board.