Networks Cluster

How may we better understand complex systems and the underlying network-like patterns that exist within them? Physicists, computer scientists, statisticians, biologists and economists within the Networks cluster are exploring these important questions using sophisticated statistical analyses and simulation methods, originally developed to understand the world of quantum physics. These techniques can be applied to unravel the structure of communities, the intricate behaviour of complex networks, their resilience or robustness, and how they evolved to be optimized for specific tasks. In social networks, it can be used to describe the dissemination of ideas and opinions, in biology it can examine the spread of epidemics or the complex modularity of protein interaction networks in cells.

Recent work based on studies of the dynamics of ecological food webs, within which infectious diseases can spread, has drawn important lessons for the ways in which financial networks of banks operate and sometimes fail, as in the recent global financial crisis. There are significant potential applications in many areas where understanding and predicting the behaviour of systems is important, such as the formation of congestion in road traffic networks or in identifying where faults in factory assembly lines may occur.

The Networks cluster offers exciting possibilities in understanding complex real-world problems and their underlying patterns in fields as diverse as finance, biology, engineering, ecology, social science or mathematics.