The Santa Fe Institute

was founded in New Mexico in 1984 as a center for the

study of complex systems. The founders of SFI

wrote that the aim of the institute was to be a place

for scientists to "pursue research on a large

number of highly complex and interative systems

which can be properly studied only in an interdisciplinary environment."

Over the past decades, the institute has grown into the world's

most prominent place for complex systems science.

Hello everybody! Welcome to the Santa Fe Institute!

Today is our virtual field trip

and tour of the institute.

Patricia: Hi Melanie welcome back!

Melanie: Thanks, great to see you!

P: Nice to see you.

M: Let me introduce you. This is Patricia Brunello. She is

the receptionist here at the Santa Fe Institute. How long have you been doing this job?

P: I've been doing this for 21 years

M: So you've met a lot of people.

P: I have. I've met people from all over the world

Probably the most intelligent people in the whole world.

M: And you must have met a lot of interesting scientists and other kinds of people

who come and visit here.

P: Yes I have. It's been great.

M: Great, well it's good to see you.

P: Nice to see you.

The first thing that you see when you come to the institute, besides Patricia

is the display of books, written by members of the institute.

The institute's faculty, the external faculty, and other associates of the institute.

You'll also see, a display of the Santa Fe Institute's

working papers. Here the latest papers in the working paper series.

These are publications written by Santa Fe Institute

faculty and other associates, and they're all available

for free on Santa Fe Institute's website.

The institute also has a wonderful library

with many thousands of books on science and other topics and

it's a great place to come in and just sit and read a book

very calm and peaceful and quiet.

Right now we're in what's called the Noyce

conference room. It used to be the ballroom of the private

mansion. But now it's used by the institute to host

seminars, workshops, and any large meetings

that are here at the institute.

It's named for Robert Noyce, one of the founders of Intel

and one of the early supporters of the institute.

There's a beautiful

view from the patio up to the back

Santa Fe is in a high desert, in Sangre de Cristo mountains, which are part of the Rocky Mountain chain

To the south we have the Sandias, to the West

the Hemes mountains, near Los Alamos, and

to the north, of course, is Colorado

Welcome to Pod A. This is the first of the three

pods, or areas which have been added on to the original house.

This is the place where people come and sit and talk or eat lunch

Or, just read.

This is Pod B, the second of the three pods

and you can see that it's a great place for people to sit and talk around the white board.

There's also some offices

here that people sit in.

At the very far end of the building is Pod C.

which has more offices, a place to store computer

equipment, and the opportunity to take an occasional break

from research, with a good hard game of fussball.