Not in residence

rjglass@sandia.gov

Research Interests
Complex adaptive systems as embodied by ecological-sociological-economic-technical systems and the design of influence within

Robert Glass was the 2011-2012 William J. Perry Fellow at CISAC where his research focused on understanding global interdependency to promote international prosperity and security. Additionally, in the spring quarter, he taught a Stanford graduate course entitled “Modeling Complex Systems” in the Management Science and Engineering Department.

He came to CISAC from Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, where he leads the Complex Adaptive Systems of Systems (CASoS) Engineering Initiative. He has degrees from Haverford College (BS, Ecology) and Cornell University (MS and PhD, Agricultural and Biological Engineering). Robert worked for many years in the general field of Subsurface Science where his discoveries of phenomena and creation of new modeling approaches influenced problems ranging from water and contaminant transport in fractured rock (e.g., Yucca Mountain, Nevada) to the remediation of aquifers contaminated with Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPL such as TCE and PCE).

Joining the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC, joint between Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories) in 2003, Robert created a research team that has evolved to become the CASoS Engineering Initiative focusing on the analysis and control of CASoS as embodied by many critical infrastructures and ecologic-socio-economic-technical systems. Example applications have included: assessment of cascading failure in multi network infrastructure such as power grids, economic supply networks, and telecommunications (with NISAC); community containment strategies for pandemic influenza subsequently adopted as first-line national policy for pandemic response (with the White House Homeland Security Council); national and global monetary policy influence on congestion and cascades within national large value payment systems linked through international foreign exchange markets (with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the European Central Bank, and the National Banks of Finland and France); design of robust and resilient large scale national community health policies for the Veterans Health Administration (with the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Chief Officer of Public Health and Environmental Hazards); among others. For more information on CASoS, see http://www.sandia.gov/CasosEngineering/ 

Last updated August 2012.