Dec 8 2006 PlexusCalls: Social Networks

Social capital and social networks can be put to work to help parents, children, and their organizations and institutions to build better, stronger communities. Jerry Stein, PhD, is Senior Fellow and Director of the newly created Project on Youth and Community Learning at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work.

 

 

Nov 10 2006 PlexusCalls: Complexity Scholars on Action and Change

Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Patton are coauthors, along with Frances Westley, of the book Getting to Maybe, a book that analyses how to initiate social change by understanding how various elements of any social situation are all interacting parts of larger complex systems.

 

 

Nov 3 2006 PlexusCalls: How to halt hospital infections

Dr. Betsy McCaughey and Dr. Jerry Zuckerman will discuss ways to stop the spread of hospital associated infections. A Plexus Institute initiative to halt the spread of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infections is being funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It involves a partnership among Plexus Institute, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Positive Deviance Initiative at Tufts University, and a nationwide network of 40 hospitals.

 

 

Oct 19 2006 PlexusCalls: Conversations

Stephen Miller and Patricia Shaw Scholar and essayist Stephen Miller believes we need conversation for our psychological, intellectual and political well-being, and he takes us on a richly furnished historical and philosophical tour to show us why.

 

 

Sep 29 2006 PlexusCalls: A Community Tackles Youth Violence & Drug Use

Join this provocative discussion to learn how members of a community can combine their differing knowledge and resources to change the conditions that perpetuate youth violence. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Howard Spivak, Diane Pittman and Elaine Fleming Join this provocative discussion to learn how members of a community can combine their differing knowledge and resources to change the conditions that perpetuate youth violence.

 

 

Sep 8 2006 PlexusCalls: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina

Lessons from Hurricane Katrina and its Aftermath: A Complexity View. Shelia Webb, Roland Anglin, Catherine Dunham.

 

 

Sep 1 2006 PlexusCalls: Voluntary Computing

What Do Climate Change, Extraterrestrial Life, Spinning Neutron Stars and Malaria Have in Common? Grassroots Supercomputing May Shed New Light On All of Them. Dr. David Anderson and Dr. Kevin Dooley.

 

 

Aug 25 2006 PlexusCalls: How Complexity Principles Align With Management

Marc Narkus-Kramer began his career in the fields of energy and the environment, and has spent the last 20 years working on air traffic control modernization with the MITRE Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), based in MacLean, Virginia. MITRE is a non-profit corporation working in the public interest in partnership with government clients. It addresses issues of critical national importance, combining systems engineering and information technology to develop innovative solutions.

 

 

 

Jul 28 2006 PlexusCalls: Complexity in Medicine

Complexity and the Body: Froniters in Medical Research. Dr. James Collins and Dr. Ary Goldberger.

 

 

 

Jul 7 2006 PlexusCalls: Marine Mammals and the Health of the Oceans

Earth’s Final Frontier: the Oceans. Hardy Jones, Ellen Prager, Sharon Benjamin.

 

 

Jun 20 2006 PlexusCalls: Appreciative Leadership & Network Weaving

Jack Ricchiuto, Lisa Kimball and June Holley discuss Appreciative Leadership and Network Weaving.

 

 

Jun 2 2006 PlexusCalls: New book, The Complementary Nature

Dr. J.A. Scott Kelso, the neuroscientist and author, founded the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University in 1985 to assemble scholars and researchers from diverse fields to work together on complex issues. His new book, The Complementary Nature, co-authored with David A. Engstrom, is in bookstores now.

 

 

May 26 2006 PlexusCalls: Scoles & Liebovitch discuss trends in scientific research

Dr. Giacinto Scoles, a Princeton University professor who received the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, and Dr. Larry Liebovitch, Interim Director of the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University, discuss trends in scientific reseach. Dr. Scoles was awarded the physics medal for developing a new technique for studying molecules by embedding them in ultra-cold droplets of helium.

 

 

 

May 12 2006 PlexusCalls: Hurricanes, Storms, and Weather as a Complex System

Dr. Greg Holland, director of Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology (MMM) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Bolder, Colorado has spent much of his career with Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, where he focused on tropical meteorology and severe weather and established programs to study the coastal impact of tropical cyclones. Dr. Bruce J. West, the Chief Scientist of the Mathematical and Information Science Directorate at the US Army Research Office, has also studied weather systems. Dr. Holland comes to NCAR from Aerosonde, a manufacturer of lightweight and long-range robotic aircraft, where he played a key role in developing small unmanned vehicles. Under Dr. Holland’s leadership, MMM plans to nest weather research forecasting within a global climate model as part of a substantial program to investigate the way large-scale processes translate into local impacts, and vice-versa.

 

 

 

Apr 28 2006 PlexusCalls: Dr. John Holland and Dr. Scott Camazine discuss complexity science, innovative problem solving and future trends in complexity

Dr. John Holland is known worldwide as the father of genetic algorithms and one of the most visionary thinkers in complexity science. He is an author an a professor of electrical engineering, computer science and psychology at the University of Michigan. He earned his BS in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a master’s degree in math and a doctorate in communications from the University of Michigan. Dr. Scott Camazine is a biologist, physician and photographer with a life-long interest in the natural world, and he has spent much of his career studying honeybee behavior. He is author of The Naturalist’s Year and Velvet Mites and Silken Webs, and co-author of Self Organization in Biological Systems.

 

 

Apr 21 2006 PlexusCalls: Storytelling for Social Change

Kate Randolph has worked world wide with teams to design social content soap operas that promote discussion and debate through educational stories. James Palmer researches internationally on human interaction and collaboration as emergent patterns of practice. Virginia Lacayo was co-creator and producer of the first Nicaraguan soap opera designed to reach young audiences with informational stories on sexual and human rights issues.

 

 

Mar 31 2006 PlexusCalls: Smart Networks: What They Are, How They Work

Dr. Kevin Dooley, professor of supply chain management at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and Dr. Lisa Kimball, executive producer of Group Jazz, an organization devoted to supporting teams, task forces, communities and organizations,will discuss networks and communications. Dr. Dooley is trustee and past president of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life Sciences. Both guests have deep understanding of the applications of complexity inspired principles.

 

 

Mar 10 2006 PlexusCalls: How Hospitals Heal Themselves

Join journalist, TV producer and author Clare Crawford-Mason and Lisa Kimball, Plexus Trustee and owner of Group Jazz, in conversation about Ms. Crawford-Mason’s latest project: a PBS documentary Good News: How Hospitals Heal Themselves.

 

 

Mar 3 2006 PlexusCalls: Complexity and Organizational Leadership

Complexity and Organizational Leadership: Special guests for this PlexusCalls will be Henri Lipmanowicz and Grey Warner.

 

 

Feb 10 2006 PlexusCalls: Complexity and Conflict Resolution

Sharon Burde, a leader of the Women’s Strategy Group and a mediator who also teaches at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Affairs will discuss conflict resolution with Dr. Barry Dorn, Associate Director of the Program for Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Harvard School of Public Health.

 

 

Jan 1 2006 PlexusCalls: Complexity and Social Services

Guests will be William Waldman, former Director of Human Services in New Jersey and now a professor at Rutgers University; Rita Saenz, former Director of Social Services in California and now chief executive officer of the Academy for Coaching Excellence; and Liz Rykert, president of MetaStrategies, a Canadian consulting firm devoted to helping charities, nonprofit and public organizations use the Internet and develop web-based capabilities.