IUNI Research Scientist Alice Patania was recently selected to become a member of the inaugural cohort of external faculty at the Vermont Complex Systems Center (VCSC).
The VCSC is a team of faculty and students at the University of Vermont’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences who are working to solve real-world complex systems problems.
VCSC’s external faculty cohort honors scholars who foster a welcoming complex systems community and collaborate often across institutions, including with the center. The external faculty members will collaborate on research, mentor students, and create an academic support network across their institutions and with the VCSC.
Patania is a computational topologist focused on developing new topological approaches to study complex systems and applying those approaches to brain and social networks. She currently serves as a principal investigator of the R21 NIH grant “Integrative Predictive Modeling of Alzheimer’s Disease,” where she develops models for the joint analysis of genomics and neuroimaging data. 
Outside of her research, Patania is dedicated to strengthening the voices of other women mathematicians who do multidisciplinary work: She’s currently co-organizing a workshop with VCSC that will give more visibility to women in mathematics who perform multidisciplinary research (stay tuned for event details!).
Patania will serve a five-year term and take part in external faculty retreats. She will also have the opportunity to lecture at VCSC workshops and conferences and collaborate on the center’s research endeavors.