The University has recently established a Centre for Networks and Collective Behaviour (CNCB) to raise the profile of research in the area.

The vision for the CNCB is to provide a cross-disciplinary forum for research collaborations: the Centre includes members from the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Design, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the School of Management.

The Centre will bring together work on network problems such as internet reliability and security, genetic regulation, transportation, utilities and communication infrastructure; one of the emergent themes of 21st century science. Similarly, collective behaviour arises in a broad range of situations: obvious examples from the natural world include human crowd dynamics, animal social groups: flocking, herding, swarming and shoaling behaviours.

The formation of the CNCB will be celebrated at an Internal Launch Day on Wednesday 15 May at 2.15pm in the Wolfson Lecture Theatre (4 West 1.7) with a series of short presentations from researchers followed (naturally) by networking, coffee and cake.

Contributions from staff are very welcome. To book a slot contact Jonathan Dawes at J.H.P.Dawes@bath.ac.uk by Friday 10 May.

Alastair Spence, Director of the CNCB, remarked: “The formation of the Centre has been enthusiastically supported by staff across the University and we're keen that everyone uses the Centre to enhance their research activities. The Centre should be driven by its members, so let us know what we should be doing.”