A core group of Sandia National Laboratories scientists and engineers started investigating complex systems literature across many domains in 2003 and initiated complex adaptive systems analyses the following year. This group began formally developing the theoretical bases of the CASoS Engineering Initiative in 2006. Some early adopters have moved on to carry the conceptual seeds into the larger Sandia population, to other disciplines and program areas. Others have joined the initiative bringing new perspectives and skill sets to continue the evolution of this problem definition and solution design process. Teams form and reform in response to project characteristics.
Walt Beyeler serves as Program Director and Engineering Lead for the CASoS Engineering program. A founding member of the CASoS initiative, his technical expertise in conceptual modeling has made major contributions to the Policy and Decision Analytics program at Sandia National Laboratories. His work has evolved from developing models of groundwater flow and transport for the US Geological Survey, to using those models to assess performance of radioactive waste disposal systems, to developing models of transport processes for use in decision-making. These applications presented the common challenge of evaluating decisions in the face of large uncertainty about system behavior and parameters. His most recent work is in developing models of complex systems for use in understanding their failure modes and designing control and mitigation strategies. Focus areas include banking and finance, agricultural supply networks, energy production and conceptual modeling of logistics and distribution for infectious disease response. Short CV; Email
George Backus conducts systems research, development and analysis in Discrete Mathematics and Complex Systems at Sandia National Laboratories. CV and bio coming soon. Email
Michael L. Bernard is a Principal Member of Technical Staff in Information and Cognitive Sciences at Sandia National Laboratories. Michael’s work primarily involves the development of psychological and neurocognitive models of individual and group decision-making. He is currently directing several research and development projects that seek to model human decision-making and behaviors at the individual, group, and regional scale around the globe. Michael has contributed to over 80 articles as well as reports on numerous technical advances in the field of human factors, general psychology, and group decision-making. Email
Nathanael J. K. Brown is a software/electrical engineer in Operations Research and Knowledge Management Systems at Sandia National Laboratories. His primary focus is on the design and development of advanced software algorithms ranging from handwriting recognition to optimization via heuristic techniques. He earned his MS from Purdue University. Email
Tom Corbet is a Principal Member of Technical Staff in Policy and Decision Analytics at Sandia National Laboratories focusing on the Natural Gas and Transportation Fuels networks and Net-Flow Dynamics. Email
Mercy Berman DeMenno is a Member of Technical Staff in the Systems Research, Analysis and Applications department at Sandia National Laboratories. She brings her background in political science, management, and public policy to support CASoS Engineering projects for the Veterans Health Administration and the Food and Drug Administration with a focus on technical policy analysis and regulatory science. Email
Mark Ehlen is a Member of Technical Staff in Infrastructure and Economic Systems Analysis at Sandia National Laboratories and Chief Economist of the National Infrastructure Simulation & Analysis Center (NISAC) at Sandia. He is primary architect of the NISAC Agent-Based Laboratory for Economics (N-ABLE), a large-scale economic complex adaptive system suite developed at Sandia. Mark has expertise in theoretical mesoeconomics and application of these theories. Resume coming soon; Email
Leland Brooks Evans is a Member of Technical Staff in the Systems Research, Analysis, and Applications department at Sandia National Laboratories. His work supports the Pandemic Influenza, Tobacco Control Policy and Veterans Health Administration projects. Email
Patrick Finley is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Computer Science Research and Development. In the commercial software arena, he has developed large engineering analysis systems currently used by a variety of Fortune 500 firms and government agencies. At Sandia, he designs and codes complex adaptive system models, develops experimental design protocols, integrates High Performance Computing (HPC) resources, and has developed innovative approaches to uncertainty quantification. Short CV; Email
John Hellier is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratores in Systems Research, Analysis, and Applications. He has leveraged his degrees in Economics, Computer Science, Information Systems, and Medical Informatics to develop Risk Management applications in support of projects across Sandia. John has many years of professional software development experience with companies including Cisco Systems and Incyte Genomics. Resume coming soon; Email
Stephen Kleban manages the Systems Research, Analysis, and Applications department at Sandia National Laboratories. As a computer scientist, he has published in a number of areas including complex systems and analysis, optimization, knowledge-based reasoning systems, collaborative systems, computer security, and distributed computer architectures. Currently, the Systems Research department he manages addresses complex adaptive systems problems from data management through the end state of an analysis product. Through involvement with the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), his staff has performed modeling and analysis of numerous complex adaptive systems resulting in national level impact. Some of his staff are also involved in rapid analysis activities for the Department of Homeland Security that contribute to national level decisions. CV coming soon; Email
Greg Lambert is a Member of Technical Staff in Systems Research, Analysis and Applications at Sandia National Laboratories. His work in uncertainty/sensitivity analysis for population structure models, social network analysis, and time series data structures contributes to the Tobacco Control Policy project. Greg also contributes to the Veterans Healthcare Administration project mitigation strategy ranking and meta-analysis research. Email
Craig Lawton conducts research, development and analysis in System Readiness and Sustainment Technologies at Sandia National Laboratories. Resume and bio coming soon. Email
Louise Maffitt has worked with Sandia National Laboratories’ decision support, risk analysis, and infrastructure simulation and analysis teams since 1994. She provides constructive review, technical writing, and conceptual design for information architecture and graphical representation. Resume Email
Michael Mitchell is a programming and analysis specialist in Systems Research, Analysis, and Applications at Sandia National Laboratories. Resume coming soon; Email
Alexander (Sasha) Outkin is a Principal member of Technical Staff in Resilience and Regulatory Effects at Sandia National Laboratories. He has more than 10 years of experience in economic and financial modeling and project leadership that includes original work in such areas as agent-based and microstructure modeling of financial markets, network and game-theoretic modeling, as well as economic and financial impacts modeling for NISAC while at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sasha graduated from Moscow State University with an M.S. in theoretical physics and from Virginia Tech with a Ph.D. in Economics. While studying theoretical physics he developed an interest in complex self-organizing systems that lead to his Ph.D. dissertation addressing the emergence of cooperation in a network of locally interacting agents and expanded game theory in the domain of evolving, non-equilibrium systems. His earlier work in agent-based and microstructure modeling of the NASDAQ stock market and of the individual market-making strategies successfully predicted important market changes ahead of the decimalization implementation. This work became the basis of a book written with Vince Darley on NASDAQ microstructure and agent-based modeling (A NASDAQ Market Simulation: Insights on a Major Market from the Science of Complex Adaptive Systems, World Scientific Publishing. March 2007). CV coming soon; Email
Vince Tidwell is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in Earth Systems and Analysis at Sandia National Laboratories. Email
Vanessa Vargas is a Member of Technical Staff in Resilience and Regulatory Effects at Sandia National Laboratories. Email
Steve Verzi is a Principal Member of Technical Staff in Systems Research, Analysis, and Applications at Sandia National Laboratories specializing in neural networks, machine learning, intelligent systems, cognitive science and algorithm design and analysis. Stephen has also taught Pattern Recognition, Introduction to Information Theory, Software Design and Mathematical Foundations of Computing at the University of New Mexico as an adjunct professor. Resume; Biosketch; Email
Eric Vugrin is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in the Resilience and Regulatory Effects Department at Sandia National Laboratories. His primary research interest is the development of analytical tools and methods for infrastructure analysis. Most recently, his research has focused on capability development for vulnerability, consequence, and resilience analysis of chemical supply chains, transportation networks, electrical power systems, and other infrastructure networks. These efforts have provided support and guidance to a number of U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Infrastructure Protection, Science and Technology, and Policy programs. Of recent note, his technical expertise was requested for the development of a resilience certification program for commercial buildings. As part of the team that developed the Canary event detection software, Dr. Vugrin received a 2010 R&D 100 Award, recognizing Canary as one of the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year. Previous to his work in the area of infrastructure analysis, he performed risk analyses for complex systems as the technical lead for Total Systems Performance Assessment at Sandia for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the world’s only certified, operating deep underground repository for nuclear waste. Dr. Vugrin earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. His graduate work on optimal control systems inspired his infrastructure resilience research. Short CV; Email
Emeritus
Retired SNL Senior Scientist Dr. Robert J. Glass initiated the 2003 investigation into complexity and complex adaptive systems which he then evolved into the Complex Adaptive Systems of Systems (CASoS) Engineering Initiative. From 2012 till spring 2017, now-retired founding partnerTheresa Brown led the continued development of CASoS Engineering.
Short CV; Webpage
Steve Conrad
Thomas Moore
George Barr Email
Richard Colbaugh
Paul Kaplan
Curtis Cooper
Rich Detry Email
Arlo Ames Resume; Email
John M. Linebarger CV; Email
Kristen Glass
Roger Mitchell
P. Sue Downes
Tu-Tach Quach
Geoffrey E. Reedy
Eric D. Russell
Shirley J. Starks
Aldo A. Zagonel