Abstract
The talk will revolve around a deceptively simple-sounding but notoriously challenging question at the nexus of condensed matter, statistical and nonlinear physics: „When far from equilibrium, in the presence of fluctuations, and faced with multiple steady states with small energy differences, how does a system evolve?“ I will argue that the triple mechanism of nonlinearity, fluctuations, and feedback mechanisms is the key machinery for the structural and behavioural emergence and sustenance of complexity, which a handful of control nobs can guide.
Brief Bio
Serim Ilday is the founding director and the chair of the Simply Complex Lab at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. She obtained her Ph.D. from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 2014, finished her postdoctoral studies at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey and continued working there as a professor in 2017. She is the recipient of prestigious awards and recognitions, including the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science (FWIS) Award in 2018, the European Research Council Starting Grant in 2019, and the “International Special Honor” Award by the Turkish Physical Society in 2022, which typically given to senior scientists, she is the youngest recipient. Her work has received considerable attention from the scientific community and media outlets by being featured in popular science books, highlighted by journal editors, and receiving accolades from prominent scientists across various research disciplines.