Elements and Relations: Aspects of a Scientific Metaphysics

Martin Zwick is a Professor of Systems Science at Portland State University. His first position after his PhD in Biophysics from MIT was in the Department of Biophysics and Theoretical Biology at the University of Chicago where he continued mathematical and computational research on macromolecular structure. When his interests shifted to systems theory and methodology, he joined the faculty of the Systems Science Program and later served for a number of years as program head. Beyond his work in systems science as such, he has applied systems ideas and methods to a wide variety of topics in the natural and social sciences, computer science and engineering, biomedicine and health, and the humanities. For the breadth and depth of his scholarly work he was recognized with the university’s award for research excellence. His recent interests have been in machine learning (especially probabilistic graphical modeling), theoretical biology and Artificial Life, and systems theory and philosophy. Scientifically, his focus is on applying systems theory and methodology to the sciences. Philosophically, his focus is on how systems ideas relate to classical and contemporary philosophy and how they help us understand and address societal problems.