How can we use formulae to describe the human brain and human society? To what extent do the brain and society share similar structures? How do such complex systems interact and learn?

Viola Priesemann studies how the human brain processes information. She is particularly interested in how the brain recognizes mistakes and learns from the slightest discrepancies. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Priesemann’s reputation as an expert on modeling complex systems spread far beyond her own discipline. Why? Because she and her team discovered that propagation processes can be modeled in very similar ways, regardless of whether we are dealing with the activity of 80 billion neurons or a virus spreading among 8 billion people.

Priesemann uses mathematical methods to decode the underlying physical principles of neural or social networks and to develop a general theory of living, learning networks. Her models reduce complex reality to the essentials. “Models force us to achieve clarity,” she says in an interview. Models also promote clarity when evaluating possible consequences for society, whether in the context of fighting pandemics, fake news, or the development of artificial intelligence. These are topics that we don’t necessarily associate with the work of a physicist, and which are all the more surprising as a result. Besides her research, Viola Priesemann and Peter-André Alt will also talk about how public discourse on scientific topics should be conducted.

Please register on the website of the Wübben Stiftung Wissenschaft.

The event will be held in German.

"Please Irritate Me" is a joint series of events organised by Die Junge Akademie and the Wübben Stiftung Wissenschaft.