[1] NECSI was established in 1996 by faculty of various New England academic institutions, including MIT, Harvard, Brandeis, and others, to encourage communication and collaboration among researchers studying complex systems.
The recognition that understanding the parts cannot explain collective behavior has led to various new concepts and methodologies that are affecting all fields of science and engineering, and are being applied to technology, business and even social policy.
ICCS conferences have featured notable computer scientists (e.g., Gerald Sussman), mathematicians (e.g., Stephen Wolfram), systems theorists (e.g., John Sterman), physicists (e.g. Sandy Pentland), economists (e.g., James Stock), and others.
In the case where portions of a population are geographically isolated from each other, for example, Yaneer Bar-Yam was able to demonstrate shortcomings in the gene-centered view of evolution, an approximation that is valid only if there is complete mixing of alleles in the gene pool.
NECSI research in social systems focuses on the collective actions that create revolutions, ethnic violence, urban health, fads and panics, global food and so on.
The winners are:[18] NECSI's work on the global food crisis has been widely cited by the press,[19][20][21] by movements to curb financial speculation,[22][23] and included among the top-10 discoveries in science in 2011 by Wired.
[28] Prior to global lockdowns, in January, 2020 Joseph Norman, Yaneer Bar Yam, and Nassim Taleb submitted a paper to the White House administration, urging them to take drastic steps to curtail the disease.