Agenda
Our first workshop will feature short presentations by MIT researchers, followed by interactive brainstorming. The agenda is as follows:
• Introduction (C. Adam Schlosser, CS3 Deputy Director and Senior Research Scientist; and Jennifer Morris, CS3 Principal Research Scientist)
• Flash Talks
o Tipping Points and Planetary Boundaries (Etienne Berthet, CS3 Postdoctoral Associate)
o Tipping Points and Land Use (Angelo Gurgel, CS3 Principal Research Scientist)
o Tipping Points in Global Physical Systems (Henry Jacoby, CS3 Faculty Affiliate and MIT Professor of Management Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Open Brainstorming Session (Interactive)
Background
This new workshop series is motivated by growing concerns about “tipping point” events, which have most recently focused on unchecked risks of dramatic and abrupt global impacts to natural systems from climate change. However, the concept of tipping points goes beyond Earth systems and has also been applied to disruptive changes across multiple disciplines including economics, natural ecosystems, epidemiology and managed resources. It has commonly been associated with “failures,” “breakpoints,” “thresholds,” “unintended consequences” and “cascading and compounding risks” across multiple systems. Yet other tipping point examples also highlight how “little changes” and seemingly “small actions” can make “big differences” and improvements in our lives. Despite many compelling cases, key scientific challenges remain in the metrics, models and supporting analyses needed to reliably represent, simulate and predict the complex, multi-system relationships and abrupt behaviors that define a tipping point. This workshop series aims to provide an interactive and collaborative platform to foster the needed research.
Format
All meetings of this workshop series will be held in an online-only format. Please note that workshop attendance is by invitation and pre-registration only. We will encourage interactive dialogue and participation among attendees, with the second half of each workshop designed to encourage open discussion. This kickoff workshop will set the stage for subsequent workshops in the series that take deeper dives into different areas of tipping points research and cross-cutting issues. Each workshop will consist of the presentation of recent research results or insights on the topic, followed by a moderated, open discussion with all participants.