Professor Shlomo Havlin, Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Abstract: Statistical physics approaches are developed and applied successfully in recent years to understand the topology, robustness and function of complex networks. We will show how ideas and tools from statistical physics lead to novel results on the robustness, immunization strategies, optimal paths and minimum spanning trees. These results are relevant to many real world systems ranging from the Internet to social systems and climate.

A novel percolation process which is characterized by fragmenting the network by removing a minimal number of nodes will be also discussed.

This result is useful for efficient immunization strategies. We will also discuss how one can synthesize novel materials in which light can be localized by modifying the network topology.