Nigel Gilbert

Professor PhD(Cantab), ScD(Cantab), FBCS, CEng, FRSA, AcSS, FREng
Department of Sociology, University of Surrey,
Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, UK

Tel: 01483 689173
Fax: 01483 689551
email: n.gilbert@surrey.ac.uk
Room: 20 AD 03

Nigel Gilbert read for a first degree in Engineering, intending to go into the computer industry. However, he was lured into sociology and obtained his doctorate on the sociology of scientific knowledge from the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Michael Mulkay. His research and teaching interests have reflected his continuing interest in both sociology and computer science (and engineering more widely).

His main research interests are processual theories of social phenomena, the development of computational sociology and the methodology of computer simulation, especially agent-based modelling. He is Director of the Centre for Research in Social Simulation.

He is also Director of the University's Institute of Advanced Studies and responsible for its development as a leading centre for intellectual interchange.

He is the author or editor of several textbooks on sociological methods of research and statistics and editor of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation.

Teaching
Research methods, computational social science

Research
Computational social science, sociology of science and science policy, innovation, consumer behaviour, sociology of the environment.

In addition to the projects listed below, he is working with Unilever plc on models of consumer behaviour, and with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP on modelling the UK housing market.

Current projects include:

SIMIAN

The SIMIAN (Simulation Innovation: a Node) project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council to promote and develop social simulation in the UK. The project started in September 2008, and involves a collaboration between the Centre for Research in Social Simulation (CRESS) and Dr Edmund Chattoe-Brown at the University of Leicester. SIMIAN is a node of the National Research Methods Centre. The project involves a programme of training courses and three "demonstrator" simulations chosen to address important social science challenges.

Emergence in the loop (EMIL)

The main objective of this project is to understand and develop design strategies able to cope with the complex 2-way dynamics of sociality, consisting of emergent and immergent processes: from interaction among individual agents to aggregate level, and immergence of entities (norms) at the aggregate level into agents' minds. In particular, we plan to focus on norm innovation. As research priorities, beside dealing with incompleteness and uncertainty, we intend to contribute to the understanding and description of hierarchic systems by describing agents acting on multiple, i.e. individual, communitarian and institutional levels.

Network Models, Governance and R&D collaboration networks (NEMO)

The objective of NEMO is to investigate the interplay between political governance, structure and function of politically induced R&D collaboration networks, in particular the networks that have emerged in the European Framework Programmes. The ultimate goal is to identify ways to create and to appraise desirable ('optimal') network structures for typical functions of such R&D collaboration networks (e.g. knowledge creation, transfer and (distribution). This will aid policymakers at all political levels in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of network-based policy instruments at promoting the knowledge economy in Europe.

Pattern Resilience (PATRES)

The project is developing methods and prototype software tools for modelling and managing pattern resilience in complex systems. Pattern resilience is understood as the capacity of the system to maintain or to recover some desired pattern dynamics (which are related to useful functions) in a changing environment. The pattern dynamics are evolving statistical regularities which are generated by the interconnected components of the system. The methods will be tested on a set of applications, including: bacteria dynamics, land-use in semi-arid savannas, learning of sequences in basal ganglia, language variety, and biotech firm networks.

Recently completed projects include:

NewTies

The NEW TIES project is growing an artificial society using computer programming that develops agents—or adaptive, artificial beings—that have independent behaviours. The project is the first of its kind to develop a large-scale and highly complex computer-based society. The project's results may have larger implications for information technologies design, evolutionary computing systems, artificial intelligence and linguistics.

The project's goal is to evolve an artificial society capable of exploring and understanding its environment through cooperation and interaction. The agents are sufficiently complex and their environment demanding, which enables them to develop a communication system to learn how to cooperate and to adapt.

SIMWEB: aimed to provide European businesses in the digital contents sector with insights and tools which will enable them to take informed business strategy decisions and become more competitive by adpating their traditional business models. To achieve this objective, SimWeb has designed and implemented sector models based on innovative, reusable, and highly scalable multi-agent simulation technology. These computer-based models, calibrated to market data extracted from sector surveys, allow market participants in the digital contents sector to run through a variety of social and economic scenarios, and observe the impact they have on their businesses in particular, and on the competitive digital contents landscape in general.

EICSTES: European Indicators, Cyberspace and the Science-Technology-Economy System, was a project funded by the European Union to develop indicators of how the Science-Technology-Economy system is being affected by the growth of the Internet. Our contribution is an analysis of how the web is used, looking at it from the point of view of the user, rather than the technology.

FIRMA: Freshwater Integrated Resource Management with Agents is an EU project that is bringing together environmental scientists and social scientists to develop simulations to help manage drinking water at the local level in Europe.

PETRAS was an EU project that compared public and business reactions to proposals to implement ecological tax reforms in Europe (project completed).

SEIN: Simulation of self-organising Innovation Networks was an EU project that developed a theory of innovation networks, expressed as a computational model. The project also carryied out case studies of biotechnology, web designers, combined heat and power, and mobile communications research to examine the role of innovation networks (project completed).

IMAGES: This EU project developed a simulation model for EU policymakers to help them design better 'Agri-Environmental Measures' (contracts with farmers that pay them to farm in a more environmentally desirable way) (project completed).

SOEIS: the Self-organisation of the European Information Society, an EU project for which the contribution from the University of Surrey has been to carry out a comparative study of the research funding systems in European states.

EPRESS: this JISC funded project has developed tools for publishing electronic journals on the internet.

Recent books include
Agent-Based Models, 2008, Sage Publications.
From Postgraduate to Social Scientist: A Guide to Key Skills, 2006, Sage Publications.
Simulation for the Social Scientist, second edition 2005, Nigel Gilbert and Klaus G. Troitzsch, Open University Press (also available in Japanese, Russian and Spanish).
Understanding Social Statistics, 2000, Jane Fielding and Nigel Gilbert, Sage Publications.
Researching Social Life, second edition, 2001, edited by Nigel Gilbert, Sage Publications.

Opening Pandora's Box, available online (2003), Cambridge University Press, 1984.

A complete list of Publications can be found here

Professional Activities
Chair, Management Board, Sociological Research Online
Editor, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Editor, Social Research Update
Director, Centre for Research in Social Simulation
Director, University of Surrey Institute of Advanced Studies
Member of Council, Academy of Social Sciences

Related Links
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
British Sociological Assocation
Economic and Social Research Council
Foresight (dti)
Academy of Social Sciences