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.

Martin Zwick是波特蘭州立大學的系統科學教授。他在麻省理工學院獲得生物物理學博士學位後，首份工作是在芝加哥大學的生物物理學和理論生物學系，繼續進行大分子結構的數學和計算研究。當他的興趣轉向系統理論和方法論時，他加入了系統科學計劃的教職員工，並在後來的幾年擔任計劃主任。除了在系統科學方面的工作外，他還將系統思想和方法應用於自然科學、社會科學、計算機科學和工程學、生物醫學和健康以及人文學科的各種主題。由於他學術工作的廣度和深度，他獲得了該大學的研究卓越獎。他最近的興趣包括機器學習（尤其是概率圖模型）、理論生物學和人工生命，以及系統理論和哲學。在科學上，他的重點是將系統理論和方法應用於科學領域。在哲學上，他關注系統思想如何與古典和當代哲學相關，以及如何幫助我們理解和解決社會問題。