Centre of Excellence for Complex Systems

The Australian Research Council Centres will carry out leading-edge research in national priority areas. They share almost $90 million over the next five years under the Federal Government $3 billion `Backing Australia's Ability' innovation package.

The ANU is part of the $11.5 million ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems, a collaborative research effort involving the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, La Trobe University and the University of Queensland.

At the ANU the Centre will focus on statistical and stochastic aspects of its brief, addressing fields as diverse and financial markets and the modelling of ocean waves and internet traffic. The key staff there will be Professors Richard Brent and David Hill.

About complex systems

The Australian Research Council (ARC) has established Centres of Excellence to maintain and develop Australia's research output in four designated areas, Nano-Materials and Bio-Materials, Genome/Phenome Research, Complex/Intelligent Systems, and Photon Science and Technology. These Centres are also expected to generate economic, social and cultural benefits for Australia.

A proposal to establish an ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems has been successful in obtaining funding from the ARC. The Centre comprises 13 Chief Investigators from The University of Melbourne, Australian National University, The University of New South Wales, The University of Queensland and La Trobe University, all of whom have international reputations for their research in mathematics and statistics.

The Centre's mission will be to stimulate research activity in mathematical and statistical modelling of complex systems. In doing so, the Centre will conduct research on criticality and phase change (e.g. in control of traffic queuing, and understanding catastrophic failure), Monte Carlo methods (e.g. in modelling financial systems), statistical modelling (e.g. in understanding telephone and internet traffic), dynamic systems (e.g. in meteorology, oceanography, and the behaviour of polymers and composite materials), risk modelling (e.g. in insurance, national security and health interventions), and advanced computation (e.g. to speed industrial design and to predict large-scale, long-term environmental impacts).

The Centre will also reinforce the importance of mathematics and statistics across the spectrum of Australia's scientific and technological development. To achieve this, the Centre will maintain an extensive and vigorous outreach program, encompassing schools, commerce and industry, and the broader research community in Australia.

Link: Home page for the Centre