Womplexity Meets Northeast: Connecting Communities

About This Event

Building Networks, Bridging Disciplines

Complex systems science depends on exchange across disciplines and on the range of perspectives that different researchers bring to it. Women remain underrepresented across many of its subfields, from computational social science and network science to ecological modeling and statistical physics, and interdisciplinary researchers often fall between the support structures of established departments.

This satellite session brings together two community-building efforts, Womplexity (Women in Complexity) and the Complex Systems Society U.S. Northeast Chapter, to create a space where women researchers at every career stage can share their work, find mentorship, and build professional networks that reach across both disciplinary and geographic boundaries.

Our Goal

To offer a scientifically rigorous venue where women in complex systems present their research and receive feedback in a supportive, low-pressure setting, one where mentorship grows out of the format itself rather than depending on prior connections.

Diversity First

We prioritize diversity in career stage, from doctoral students to senior faculty, and in disciplinary background, so that attendees can see several viable paths through a complex systems career rather than a single model of success.

About the Satellite

Representation of women in STEM has improved over recent decades, but progress remains uneven, and it is especially fragile in interdisciplinary areas like complex systems, where researchers often sit between the support structures of established departments. Policies on hiring and funding have been necessary without being sufficient on their own, and sustained networks at the community level help prevent the isolation that comes from working apart from peers who face similar challenges. Conferences are a natural place to turn scattered individual experiences into shared momentum.

The satellite runs as a half-day afternoon program built for both scientific depth and personal exchange. It opens with invited keynotes from established women whose career trajectories offer early-career scientists a practical roadmap as much as an inspiration, and short contributed talks give researchers from across the subfields of complex systems a venue to present their work.

A dedicated segment introduces the activities, projects, and plans of the CSS U.S. Northeast Chapter, a regional community that runs seminars, reading groups, and collaborations through the year and welcomes new members and collaborators. The program closes with a panel of women researchers and a moderator working in different corners of complex systems. It is organized around three guiding questions, asking how to build networks across institutions and countries, how to navigate non-linear career paths, and how communities like Womplexity and regional CSS chapters can best support researchers who are early in their careers or moving between fields. The panel is meant to be conversational rather than formal, with room for reflection, practical advice, and audience participation.

Program Schedule

Half-day satellite session • Afternoon program • Thursday, October 15th, 2026