Dr. Marco Buongiorno Nardelli, University Distinguished Research Professor of UNT Physics, Chemistry, and Composition Studies has been appointed to the position of External Professor of the Santa Fe Institute. This election recognizes his many contributions to science and the potential to enhance and extend SFI's research. The nomination acknowledges, among other things, his inter and cross disciplinary work on the use of complexity science in the analysis and composition of music.
"I am very excited by the possibility of working at SFI, a world-famous institution dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, including physical, computational, biological, and social system," said Dr. Buongiorno Nardelli of the appointment. "I am already participating to SFI's research and outreach activities by leading a working group on "Music Complexity" and planning concerts and performances throughout the Santa Fe area. And there will be more!"
Dr. Buongiorno Nardelli's work is intrinsically inter- and cross-disciplinary: his work in Physics and in Art is the natural extension of his practices as a creative thinker:
"At the core, I am doing the same thing; the tools that I use to achieve the end-goals are different, of course, but the conceptual framework is very similar. These two things talk to each other at a very deep level."
As fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Institute of Physics, his research activities range from the design and discovery of novel materials for 21st century applications in renewable energy, environment, nano-electronics and devices, to the development of advanced electronic structure theories and high-throughput techniques in materials genomics and computational materials design. As a music theorist and composer, he is a pioneer in the application of complexity theories and big data analysis tools to the structure of music as a generalized mathematical space. As an artist, he is internationally recognized for his music/new media installations, and his artistic research is rooted in the duality "music as data, data as music", including the translation of scientific data and processes into sonic, and potentially artistic, material. For more about Dr. Buongiorno Nardelli's scientific and artistic research, visit ermes.unt.edu and www.materialssoundmusic.com.