Gallatin senior Morgan Silver-Greenberg (BA '08) recently won the 2007 Max Goldstein Prize in computer science, an award bestowed by NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences on an undergraduate student for "creativity in computing." Silver-Greenberg was nominated for this honor when NYU Professor Claudia Joskowicz became aware of the exciting work he was doing, not only in her digital art class, but in an emerging field of science.
Last fall in Joskowicz's class, in which students were assigned to create their own websites, Silver-Greenberg was developing a site for a research collective he had just founded, and he was also combining digital art with cellular automata. Cellular automata are mathematical models of spatial interactions designed to simulate complexities in nature and systems in the world. The most well known example of a cellular automaton is John Conway's "Game of Life." Developed in 1970, the model simulates the processes of life, death, and population dynamics.
Confused yet? Hang on. Because the work that Silver-Greenberg does is perhaps a bit puzzling to the layperson. But it is also progressive, dynamic, and a fantastic example of interdisciplinary study. His Gallatin concentration is in an emerging field called complex systems. The New England Complex Systems Institute, one of the few establishments in the U.S. devoted to this area, defines complex systems as "a new field of science studying how parts of a system give rise to the collective behaviors of the system, and how the system interacts with its environment." To put it in his own terms, Silver-Greenberg's work is about "looking at the architecture, movement, and structure of systems that underlie anything that has life in the world," and trying to further an understanding of these abstract systems and their implications. For example, he can create models to analyze the engine behind a tree's growth, patterns of DNA in a human being, or how ideas and trends move through society. After exploring these information constructs, he then studies the applicable manifestations and effects of these systems in the real world. So, he might use a systems model of how ideas move through society to examine how genres of music are formed and how this relates to social contexts and communications.
Silver-Greenberg's work involves sociology, linguistics, culture and communications, philosophy, mathematics, computer science, architecture, and design. Thus, Gallatin is the perfect place for him to combine and pursue his interests. But his current studies are the result of a remarkable path of discovery.
In high school in Los Angeles, Silver-Greenberg continually tested high in math—but he couldn't stand the subject. Always intrigued by art, music, and the social sciences, he soon developed a strong interest in architecture. In 2002, he left the West Coast to attend Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied art, economics, and philosophy, but became frustrated with the direction his undergraduate education was taking. He took time off to figure out what he wanted to pursue, and was traveling, working in New York, and reading a lot, all the while thinking about architecture, the design and nature of space, economic systems, and their larger philosophical applications. He audited a class at The New School called Global Images of Metropolitan Futures, taught by architect Margarita Gutman. In searching for the right words for a class paper he was writing, he googled the term "complex systems" and stumbled upon a defined, up-and-coming field of study that embodied all of his interests.
The field of complex systems is so innovative that Silver-Greenberg couldn't find an undergraduate program in which to study it. At the same time, his twin brother, Luke Silver-Greenberg (BA '06), was completing a bachelor's degree at Gallatin (combining film production and real estate). Something clicked: Silver-Greenberg realized he needed to be at a school where he could create his own program of study, and Gallatin was that place. "NYU has so many resources," he states, "and since complex systems is so interdisciplinary in itself, that was important to me."
Since coming to campus in 2005, he has taken NYU courses (many on the graduate level) at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, in the Department of Linguistics at the Graduate School of Arts and Science, and in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, as well as courses in sociology, psychology, culture and communications, and art at the Steinhardt School. He's also fit in classes at the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute, and an internship with a creative agency called No Mas. At Gallatin, he particularly enjoyed a course entitled Nature and the Place, in which he wrote a paper on "what is natural and how it can be applied to new mathematical methodologies." A large part of his program has included independent study projects with his adviser, Ray Dougherty, a professor in NYU's Department of Linguistics who has a background in math and engineering. "Ray has been really important to my study," offers Silver-Greenberg. "He introduced me to cellular automata and has helped me to draw connections between things."
During the summer of 2006, Silver-Greenberg embarked on a fellowship in an elite program hosted by Brown University with Steven Wolfram, a scientist, author, and computer program creator considered to be the most eminent complexities theorist in the world. At the summer's end, Silver-Greenberg was invited to work in the special projects office of Wolfram Research at their Cambridge think-tank. But he instead opted to start his own research collective, Program Nature, along with senior Wolfram Research associate Kovas Boguta, his adviser from the summer program. Program Nature's mission is to advance new mathematical abstract systems that articulate the formation of complex behavior and, through programming and social analysis, to research the direct manifestation of these concepts as they occur in our natural world.
Silver-Greenberg again took part in Wolfram's summer program in 2007, and he intends to graduate from Gallatin in 2008 and continue his work with Boguta. He applied the funds from the Max Goldstein Prize towards publishing Program Nature's first zine. In 2007, he has delivered lectures on his research at such places as the Pratt Academic Initiatives Council, where he spoke on creation and the digital age, and the International Linguistics Association, where he talked about how complex systems can be applied to language processing.
Silver-Greenberg strongly feels that the research Program Nature is doing will have sound real-world applications. He is exploring the idea of starting a company, and applying for financial support from an entity called Y Combinator, which offers seed funding for startups. With all that he's accomplished, it's easy to forget that he's only 23 years old. But he could probably show you a systems model that would elucidate that.