Network Science

Networks are ubiquitous and determine daily life at all levels, ranging from molecular and genetic mechanisms to global communication and transportation systems. Network dynamics generates problems in many domains, examples being perturbation effects in global economy, internet crime, misuse of social networks or the spread of diseases through global transportation networks. On the other hand, optimizing network structures or interactions can be highly beneficial and of utmost importance, e.g., in economics, in logistics, in health systems or in the brain. Facing these challenges, network science is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary research area of obvious importance and application relevance.

The group brings together, in an interdisciplinary context, scientists working on networks including brain networks, molecular and genetic networks, semantic networks, computer networks, economic networks and social networks. A key question for the group work is whether networks in these different domains share structural or dynamic properties and whether they can be analysed and modeled using similar approaches.

On June 26-28, 2016, the group has organized the International Symposium "Frontiers in Network Science" in cooperation with the Collaborative Research Centre 936 at Hamburg.