NICO Quarterly Newsflash - February 2022   RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT     Professor Hyejin Youn Receives NSF Big Ideas Grant Congratulations to Hyejin Youn who was awarded an NSF 10 Big Ideas grant to develop a unified theory of regulatory functions and networks across biological and social systems. This project will include the hiring of a post doc and research assistants at NICO who will collaborate with Professor Youn and Professors at the Santa Fe Institute. Read the article > Bacteria Upcycle Carbon Waste into Valuable Chemicals Researchers led by Northwestern Engineering and LanzaTech have harnessed bacteria to break down waste carbon dioxide to make valuable industrial chemicals, such as acetone and isopropanol. This new gas fermentation process removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and avoids using fossil fuels. Michael Jewett is a co-senior author of the study. Read the article >     FEATURED EVENTS 2/28 - Data Science Nights featuring Emily Webber from Amazon Web Services 3/1 - Cognitive Science Program, Melanie Mitchell, Santa Fe Institute “Why AI is Harder Than We Think” 3/2 - Wed@NICO, Filipa Rijo-Ferreira, U of C Berkeley "Circadian rhythms in parasitic infections" 3/22 - Call for Abstracts deadline for the Inaugural Conference on the Science of Science and Innovation (ICSS) to be held June 7-9, 2022 in Washington DC.     IN THE NEWS - MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS Augmenting Our Thinking through the Nexus of Engineering, Science, Technology, and Art – Julio Ottino, February 2022 Police Violence Linked to Higher Rates of Preterm Delivery, Heart Disease Among Black Women - Andrew V. Papachristos, February 2022 Do People Really Understand Your Data Visualizations?, Steve Franconeri, Dec 2021 Pandemic's Effect on Scientists May Be Long Lasting, Dashun Wang, Oct 2021 Scientific fields that are awarded prizes see subsequent research boon, Brian Uzzi, Oct 2021 So Far Yet So Close – Noshir Contractor and Leslie DeChurch, Sept 2021 In Memoriam: Professor Ned Smith, Sept 2021     AWARDS AND PRIZES Uri Wilensky has been elected to the National Academy of Education for outstanding work in education scholarship and research. Professor Wilensky, the Lorraine H. Morton Professor of Learning Sciences and Computer Science, is the father of a worldwide movement to harness the power of computer modeling and simulations and foster the mindset known as “computational thinking.” The 2021 NICO Staff Service Award was given to Kristi Hubbard, Director of Planning at Northwestern. Since Spring 2017, Kristi has been closely working with NICO to organize the Faculty Research Networking Luncheons. The overall goals of these luncheons include new faculty connections, innovative research agendas, collaborative publications, potential new and joint hires, and identification of funding opportunities and new projects. Kristi's contribution to the success of these luncheons is indisputable.  The 2021 NICO Postdoctoral Fellow Service Award was given to Thomas Stoeger. Thomas played an indispensable role in launching Data Science Nights, a NICO sponsored event that features monthly speakers and coding groups organized around popular data science topics. Data Science Nights has been successfully running since November 2017. Additionally, he successfully set up a Science of Science Group in the Chicago area, and is involved in career development activities for postdoctoral fellows.     WE WANT YOU NICO’s Quarterly Newsflash provides insights about the Northwestern ecosystem of data science, network science, and complex systems with the aim of sparking innovation and collaboration in our community. Please contact us to share ideas for new content, recommend speakers for Wednedays@NICO or Data Science Nights, or tell us what you love or what we can do better!     Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems 600 Foster Street, Evanston, IL 60208 (847) 491-2527 To manage your subscription to the NICO Listserv, please login to NUIT or reply with "SUBSCRIBE" or "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line.