Networks: Emergence and dynamics

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The main objective of this proposal is capacity building in theoretical complexity science by coordinating and developing existing activities in the Departments of Mathematics, Physics and Bioengineering at Imperial. The RA hired for the project will be placed in the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (IMS) at Imperial. The IMS provides a venue for transdisciplinary research in mathematical sciences applied to real world problems. In this way the project will benefit from the other complexity activities hosted by the IMS as well as forging an inventive collaboration between researchers from various Departments. The proposed research will focus on network dynamics, a term that encompasses both dynamics on, and dynamics of, networks. Theoretical tools related to statistical mechanics, dynamical systems theory and stochastic processes will be developed to analyse and characterise the relationship between network structure and the emergence of collective network behaviour. In particular, the research will develop our understanding of the dynamical evolutionary processes leading to specific network structure and the properties of dynamical processes taking place on such networks. The theoretical modelling will be inspired by functional brain imaging data obtained experimentally by the Division of Clinical Neuroscience. The theoretical research will on the other hand motivate the experimental development.