June 8 - July 4 , 2025.
Summer School is a full-time (all-day) commitment. All participants are expected to attend the entire program in person.
CSSS is made possible by registration fees and the generous support of the McKinnon Family Foundation and Darla Moore Foundation.
The registration fee for participants from academic institutions: $4,500.
The registration fee for participants from the corporate/private sector: $6,000.
The registration fee covers course-related costs, accommodations, and meals. Students are responsible for the cost of travel.
Participants generally secure funding to attend from their home institution, or sometimes from a third-party funding source. Once accepted, participants may apply for partial or full registration fee waivers from SFI based on need. Please read more under CSSS FAQs.
- Develop a deeper understanding of the theory and methods used to describe and predict the behavior of complex systems.
- Explore the latest applications of complex systems science to diverse research questions.
- Collaborate on a transdisciplinary research project in complex systems science.
- Connect with future colleagues and collaborators and the SFI research community.
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| IAIA |
Santa Fe Institute |
downtown Santa Fe, NM |
The Summer School sessions take place on the campuses of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) and the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Participants are accommodated in student dormitories on the IAIA campus.The IAIA campus is located in a beautiful Southwest high desert setting with mountain views, extensive walking trails, and quiet places for contemplation, and a short drive to the SFI campus.
Program Director
Photo Credit: Doug Merriam
Program Director Dave Feldman is a professor of physics and mathematics at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. He has been involved in CSSS since 2004. Feldman served as co-director of CSSS Beijing from 2006 to 2008 and has directed CSSS in Santa Fe since 2017. He has published two books, an introductory textbook on chaos and fractals and a book on dynamical systems that is part of the Primers in Complex Systems series. Feldman is a major contributor to Complexity Explorer, where you can take his courses on Dynamical Systems and Chaos and Fractals and Scaling.
SFI Faculty and Invited Experts
The following speakers are confirmed for 2025:
Jenna Bednar • federalism | Sam Bowles • inequality, economics | Liz Bradley • nonlinear dynamics | Marco Buongiorno Nardelli • complexity in music | Ted Chiang • science fiction, thought experiments | Simon DeDeo • cognitive science, cultural evolution | Stephanie Forrest • biocomputation and security | Jacob Foster • LLMs, NLP | Kyle Harper • global human history | Laurent Hébert-Dufresne • networks | Chris Kempes • biological scales and hierarchies | David Krakauer • complexity | Melanie Mitchell • artificial intelligence | Holly Moeller • acquired metabolism | Cris Moore • Computation | Mary O'Connor • metabolic ecology, biodiversity | Brandon Ogbunu • structural inequalities | Orit Peleg • biological communication | Michael Ralph • slavery, insurance, incarceration | Sam Scarpino • epidemiology | Allison Stanger • politics, technology, humanism | Porter Swentzell • indigenous culture | Fernanda Valdovinos • networks and ecology | Andreas Wagner • fitness | Sara Walker • astrobiology | Westley Weimer • improving software properties | Geoffrey West • singularities | Thalia Wheatley • collective emotions | Pamela Yeh • evolution | Hyejin Youn • innovation
Applications are accepted from graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and professionals in any discipline, including fields not traditionally represented in the sciences (e.g., the humanities or arts) who feel their work connects to a rigorous study of complex systems. If you are a journalist interested in the Complex Systems Summer School, please check out SFI's CSSS Journalism Fellowship.
Applicants from any country are welcome. Applicants who are not US citizens or permanent residents may need to apply for a visa waiver or B-1 visa. Please see more information under the FAQs.
The CSSS team is committed to offering programs in which all participants feel valued and supported in their learning journey. We believe that open discourse and the respectful sharing of broad perspectives is essential to meaningful scientific progress, and we welcome you to join us.
While the application period is open, access the application system through the "Apply now!" button at the top right of your screen.
Applicants should submit:
- Biographical information (filled out directly in the application portal).
- A current academic CV or résumé, including a list of publications, if any.
- A statement that describes your scholarly interests in complex systems and your goals in attending Summer School (maximum two pages).
- Two letters of recommendation: one from a supervisor and one from a collaborator.
Complex Systems Summer School
