Title:Interconnectedness
--from classic theory of graphs to emerging science of networks
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Abstract
Whatare the commonalities between transfer of data packets on the Internet,ordering web pages by a search engine, formation of communities and opinions ina social network, spread of diseases, chemical reactions of molecules in acell, flow of cash in a financial market, and collaboration among movie actors? If modeled with networks, what are the physical laws governing thestructures and evolution of these networks of varying natures? This talkprovides a narrative of the emergence of the science of networks, and how sucha transition from reductionism to holism of scientific research throughinterconnectedness affects everyone of us.
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DrYuanzhu Chen has been a Professor of Computer Science since 2005, and currentlyserves as Head of Department. He received the BSc degree from PekingUniversity, China in 1999 and the PhD degree from Simon Fraser University, Canadain 2004. From 2004 to 2005, he was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at SimonFraser University, and then joined Memorial University in 2005 as tenure-trackAssistant Professor. While at Memorial, he was the Deputy Head forUndergraduate Studies from 2012 to 2015 and the Deputy Head for GraduateStudies from 2016 to 2019. Dr Chen's research interests include complexnetworks, computer networking, online social networks, mobile computing, graphtheory, Web information retrieval, and evolutionary computation. Dr Chenhas published over 70 research articles in peer-reviewed journals andconferences in these areas. He has supervised and co-supervised 2 postdocfellows and over 50 graduate students with funding from national agencies andvarious university programs and awards. Dr Chen is a recipient of thePresident's Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2018.
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