Presentation

ComplexCité is an innovative and federative initiative that aims at bringing together the expertise at UPCité and associated partners, in the modeling of complex phenomena, from theoretical aspects to experimental explorations and multidisciplinary applications. For historical reasons that are largely specific to France, such an expertise is currently scattered among multiple groups and departments within the university, not only across the “Faculté des Sciences” but also across the “Faculté de Santé”. While a few individual-based interdisciplinary cross-department interactions already exist, ComplexCité has been designed as a large-scale transverse structure that intends to act as a cradle to promote and to support research and training related to the modeling of complex phenomena at UPCité, and in particular to initiate, stimulate and develop collaborations in those areas where interdisciplinary expertise, or a combination of theoretical (mathematical or computational) and experimental skills, are required. To fulfill that goal, the main actions of ComplexCité will be

1. To provide fellowships at all post-graduate stages, from Master to PhDs and postdoctoral associates, with emphasis on projects that involve joint supervision of interdisciplinary nature;
2. To build a community through outreach events, meetings and more specialized workshops at all scales of the consortium.

Composition of the consortium

The consortium of ComplexCité is a broad, diverse and multidisciplinary entity that combines about 150 tenured researchers from multiple groups across the University, from Mathematics and Fundamental Computer Science, to Physics and BioPhysics, Planet Earth and Medicine. As a whole, the consortium incorporates the large panel of complementary expertise that is needed to tackle complex phenomena, from conceptual aspects and modeling (including Analysis of PDEs, Probability and Stochastic Processes, (Bio-)Statistics and Data Sciences, Optimization and (Machine) Learning, Combinatorics and Graphs, and Statistical Physics) to empirical and observational proficiency (including Nonlinear Physics, (Geological) Fluid Mechanics, Infectious Diseases). The detailed composition of the consortium involves members of the following research labs:

• the four research labs in Mathematics at UPCité: MAP5, LJLL, LPSM and IMJ-PRG;
• the Fundamental Computer Science lab: IRIF;
• two Physics labs: MSC, PMMH;

Beyond all these laboratories affiliated with the Faculty of Science, several groups from UPCité or from the university’s key partners are involved in ComplexCité:

• two labs within the “Faculté Santé”: CRESS/ECSTRRA, IAME;
• one group at Institut de Physique du Globe : Geological Fluid Dynamics;
• two labs at Institut Pasteur: MMMI, DCPP

Scientific themes

The activities of the consortium are decomposed into the following 4 main themes which, altogether, provide a broad overview of the scientific spectrum of ComplexCité.

1. Collective systems and their dynamics, from the microscopic scale to the macroscopic description (agent-based models, particle systems, disordered systems, PDEs, etc.)
2. Fluid flows and applications (turbulence, complex fluids, atmospheric dynamics, climate applications, geophysical fluids, etc.)
3. Modeling in life sciences: structure and function (intra- and supracellular organization, ecosystems and theoretical ecology, population dynamics, applications in epidemiology, immunology and cancer research, etc.)
4. Optimization, learning and complexity (algorithms, graphs and networks, high-dimensional phenomena, verification, causal inference, etc.)