Ezra's Round Table/Systems Seminar: Pamela Sydelko (Argonne National Laboratory) - Systems-level Approaches to Complex Decision-making

Friday, November 22, 2013 at 12:00pm Frank H. T. Rhodes Hall, 253 Ezra's Round Table/Systems Seminar: Pamela Sydelko (Argonne National Laboratory) - Systems-level Approaches to Complex Decision-making The world is a very complex place and the decision’s our nation makes can have far-reaching impacts both inside and outside our boarders. Many of our policies and strategies were created during a time when; 1) economies were not as global, 2) wars were fought in “cold-war” fashion, and 3) when we were more naive about the interdependent impacts on our environment. We need to transform our decision-making capabilities through the advancement of more holistic systems-level decision support methods and technologies that allows for better understanding of the interdependencies and the second and third order impacts our decisions, or the decisions made by others, have on our nation’s well-being. This presentation will summarize Argonne’s research efforts (often in partnership with others) to promote the development and implementation of advanced systems approaches to challenges such as energy, national/homeland security, climate/weather changes, and resiliency. Bio: Pamela Sydelko is the Deputy Associated Laboratory Director for Energy Engineering & Systems Analysis Directorate, Argonne National Laboratory. She also serves as the Laboratory’s National Security Program Director. Her expertise is in systems-level research and technology development aimed at advancing modeling, analysis and decision support tools for addressing complex interdependent problems. Key application domains include environment, national security, energy, and infrastructures. Ms. Sydelko has degrees in environmental science (Botany and Soil Science) and earned her MBA from the University of Chicago. She joined Argonne in October 1989, coming from the U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center – Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) in Champaign-Urbana, Ill.