Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Epistemology of Modeling & Simulation

Epistemology of Modeling Simulation: Building Research Bridges between the Philosophical and Modeling Communities

University of Pittsburgh
1-3 April 2011

Hosted by the Center for Philosophy of Science and the University of Pittsburgh MIDAS National Center for Excellence in the Graduate School for Public Health

The conference will focus on philosophical issues that arise within the practice and application of contemporary research using modeling and simulation The goal is to bring together sophisticated work in philosophy of science and on-going efforts in modeling in order to build more effective collaboration between philosophers of science and those who build and employ models in a range of disciplines and applications.

Topics will include:
The scientific status of computational techniques
Does simulation require a new epistemology?
The role of theory, experiment, model and simulation
Varieties and purposes of scientific simulation
Analytic modeling versus computer simulation
Problems in juggling multiple and competing models
How do models fail?
Validation and verification of models and simulations
Promises and pitfalls of large, detailed, and realistic models
Modeling, science, and policy

Call for Presentations

Co-Directors: Patrick Grim and Nicholas Rescher

Program Committee: Mark Bedau, Joshua Epstein, John Grefenstete, Ross Hammond, Paul Humphreys, James G. Lennox, Marc Lipsitch, Sandra Mitchell, Ryan Muldoon, John D. Norton, Scott Page, Susan Sterrett, Bas van Fraassen, Michael Weisberg, and Kevin Zollman

For additional information on MIDAS, go to: www.midas.pitt.edu.

Contacts:
Patrick Grim, Philosophy, Stony Brook. Email: pgrim@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Dr. Phillip Palmer, MIDAS Education Outreach Coordinator, Email: php9@pitt.edu , Phone: (412) 624-6957

USC 2011-13 Postdoctoral STS Research Associate

The Science, Technology and Society initiative at USC

The Research Cluster in Science, Technology and Society at the University of Southern California seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate for a two-year appointment (to be renewed after the first year) in the department of Sociology, beginning in the Fall 2011. The STS Research Cluster is a new interdisciplinary initiative that seeks to foster contemporary and historical inquiry into the contexts of scientific knowledge production and the societal impact of technological innovation. For more information, please see our website.
https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=41622

2010-2013 the Research Cluster will focus on three themes:
(1) Contested universality: the extension of scientific knowledge and its limits;
(2) Transformations of life: the human sciences from the early modern to the molecular age; and
(3) Technological futures, past and present.