People

Yaneer Bar-Yam

Yaneer Bar-Yam

Formal First Name
Yaneer
Dates
1959 - present

Yaneer Bar-Yam is a scientist and activist specializing in complex systems. He is the President of The New England Complex Systems Institute, an independent research institution that studies complex systems science and its real-world applications. His research focuses on developing complex systems concepts and applying them to diverse areas of scientific inquiry and to major social problems. Throughout his career, Yameer has written and advised government agencies about complex challenges, including promoting development, improving healthcare and education, engineering complex systems, and preventing ethnic violence. He has taught the concepts and methods of complex systems science to over 2,000 graduate students, professionals and executives. An expert in the quantitative analysis of pandemics, Yareem has advised policy makers on the Western African Ebola virus epidemic and founded EndCoronavirus.org, a global network of over 4,000 volunteers formed in February 2020 to provide information, guidelines, and policy advocacy to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

  • He has published a wide range of scientific and real world problems ranging from cell biology to the global financial crisis.

  • Developed scientific tools to improve our ability to anticipate the impact of societal decisions and policies.

  • His development of multiscale representations addressed the limitations of calculus and statistics in the study of nonlinear and network system dependencies.

  • Since the 1980s, he has contributed to founding the field of complex systems science, introducing fundamental mathematical rigor, real world application, and educational programs for new concepts and insights of this field.

  • His recent work quantitatively analyzes the origins and impacts of market crashes, social unrest, ethnic violence, military conflict and pandemics, the structure and dynamics of social networks, as well as the bases of creativity, panic, evolution and altruism.


ADVISORY

  • He has advised the Chairman's Action Group at the Pentagon about global social unrest.

  • He advised on the crises in Egypt and Syria, the National Security Council and the National Counter Terrorism Council on global strategy.

  • He advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about delivery of prevention services and control of hospital infections.

  • He advised Congressman Barney Frank about market regulation and the financial crisis, and other government organizations, NGOs, and corporations.


PUBLISHING 

  • He is the author of 200+ research papers in professional journals, including Science, Nature, American Naturalist, and Physical Review Letters.

  • Throughout his career, he has 3 patents, and has given over 175 invited presentations.

  • His work on the causes of the global food crisis was cited among the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2011 by Wired magazine.

  • His books apply complex systems science to solving problems in healthcare, education, systems engineering, international development, and ethnic conflict.


MEDIA & APPEARANCES

  • His work has been described in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and Die Zeit.

  • His work appeared in Le Monde, Time, The Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American, Wired, Fast Company, Forbes, Slate, Mother Jones, and Vice, among others.

  • He has appeared on ABC News, Canada’s CTV, RT, BBC Radio, NPR Radio, and other national media outlets.