Algorithmic modeling of complex systems

The convergence between computer science and biology occurred in successive waves, involving deeper and deeper concepts of computing. The current situation makes computer science a suitable candidate for becoming a philosophical foundation for systems biology with the same importance as mathematics, chemistry and physics. However, this significant opportunity is not a free lunch. New developments and a strong integration of different fields of computing are needed to face the challenges of systems biology. One of these developments is that of a complex and expanding applicative domain that can open entirely new avenues of research in computing and eventually help it become a natural, quantitative science. The main characteristic of highly parallelism and interaction-driven dynamics of biological systems make the conceptual and software framework developed for biological systems amenable to model, simulate and analyse any complex system whose evolution is determined by the interaction of its sub-components. Therefore, economics, ecology, sociology and computing systems themselves are suitable applicative domains. More info in "Algorithmic Systems Biology", Communications of the ACM, 52(5):80-88, May 2009.