Santa Fe Institute

SFI reported that its Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Kaleda Denton was selected to participate in the Rising Stars in Computational and Data Sciences workshop, and described the nature of her research transition toward real-data testing.

SFI reported that External Professor Laurent Hébert-Dufresne received the 2026 Erdős-Rényi Prize, describing his contributions to contagion theory on complex networks.

SFI reported that External Professor Wendy Carlin was appointed a Dame Commander in the 2026 UK New Year Honours, and noted her role as a founder/director of the open-access CORE Econ curriculum.

SFI described its Lou Schuyler Seed Grant Fund, reporting that since 2022 it has supported SFI postdoctoral fellows with up to $15,000 per project and highlighted example projects and outcomes.

SFI announced that its Board of Trustees elected Ian McKinnon as Board Chair and Sam Peters as Board Vice-Chair (three-year appointments beginning April 29, 2025), and that the Board also renewed a five-year contract with President David Krakauer.

SFI reported major gifts from the McKinnon Family Foundation and the Darla Moore Foundation, pledging $750K each year for five years to support education and early-career research programs including the Omidyar Fellowship and flagship education programs.

SFI reported on the Lou Schuyler Internal Postdoctoral Research Grant Fund, describing internal funding for postdoctoral fellows (up to $15,000 per grant) and its purpose as a low-stakes mechanism to expand exploratory research lines.

SFI announced a five-year research theme on emergent political economies funded by a $6.5 million Omidyar Network grant, describing the theme’s focus on inequality and new theoretical frameworks.