Wednesday, May 13, 2026 2:00 pm
-
4:00 pm
EDT (GMT -04:00)
Dr. Eric De Giuli
As part of WICI's "Particles to Markets" Complexity Day, WICI is pleased to welcome WICI affiliate researcher, Dr. Eric De Giuli to present at this event.
Dr. De Giuli is a theoretical physicist and complexity researcher whose work explores how intricate structures and behaviors emerge from simple physical laws. Currently an Associate Professor of Complexity Physics at Toronto Metropolitan University, his research spans chemical reaction networks, the origins of metabolism, learning in human language, and the physics of amorphous solids. His recent talks highlight how stochasticity and noise can act as endogenous forms of control in complex systems, offering fresh insight into multistable chemical networks and the natural emergence of agent‑like behavior. Drawing on a background that bridges applied mathematics, geophysics, and the statistical physics of language, he brings a uniquely integrative perspective to the study of emergence and self‑organization.
"Complexity, noise, and control"
Abstract: From ecosystems to amorphous solids, complex systems involve the collective behaviour of huge numbers of components. A powerful paradigm, highlighted by recent Nobel Prizes in Physics, quantifies complexity through the lens of statistical physics as the proliferation of long-lived metastable states. I will survey this framework and discuss what is missing to extend it to biological systems at the cellular scale, where diversity, robustness, and adaptation are crucial, and where chemical reaction networks provide the natural substrate.
I will then focus on the control aspect of complex systems, and show how noise can be harnessed to achieve control objectives. This viewpoint illuminates phenomena like stochastic resonance and Brownian ratchets, and explains how goal-directed behaviour can emerge from noisy biochemical dynamics.
The talk will be accessible to a broad audience.
Join us May 13, 2026, 2:00 pm in Faculty Hall PSE 7303. Please register below.