Origins

THE WINDING PATH THAT LED HERE:

Having always been fascinated by the many central mysteries left unanswered in science, Dr. Diggans is an advocate for what he calls “a more humble science,” where the limits of knowledge are always pushed further, but acknowledged and respected; this is especially necessary when dealing with complex systems, which are fundamentally different than merely complicated systems due to the most mysterious phenomenon of all: emergence.

After a brief foray in an organic chemistry lab, Dr. Diggans became fascinated by the mysteries of quantum physics and leveraged his natural aptitude for mathematics toward a BS in physics and mathematics. One of several concurrent undergraduate projects turned into a natural thesis topic for an MS in mathematics. He then spent several years teaching a wide range of undergraduate courses and continuing his research in physics as time permitted, while his wife returned to school for mechanical engineering. He continued his long term plans in 2015 by returning to school at Tulane University for a PhD in physics, intending to study the foundations of quantum physics with a focus on decoherence, quantum chaos, and the classical limit. However, it became quite clear that the only opportunities available at Tulane were going to be highly specialized topics in quantum computing.

That reality, along with several other factors including a fortuitous exposure to “The Quark and the Jaguar” by Murray Gell-Mann in a used bookstore in 2015, resulted in the slow emergence of a new passion for the mysteries of complex systems. This ultimately led to leaving Tulane and accepting a position as a mathematician at a government laboratory, where his roots grasped a new soil. This shift in interest from the small (quantum physics) toward the big (complex systems science) was enabled by his experience teaching graph theory at NAU, and then it was further fed by reading foundational literature like “Architectures of Complexity” by Herbert Simon, the work of John Holland, and the wonderful book “Hierarchy Theory: a vision vocabulary and epistemology” by Allen and Ahl, as he explored emergence in multi-agent systems at work.

Through the generous support of the laboratory, Dr. Diggans was able to return to school at Clarkson University to complete his PhD in physics, this time focused on statistical physics under the advisement of Dr. Erik Bollt, where his growing obsession with hierarchical structures and other natural dynamics-driven patterns led his research to focus on the role of graph conductance in the synchronization of network coupled chaotic dynamical systems and the definition of the concept of an Essential Synchronization Backbone. Hierarchical spanning subgraphs have been a major focus of his work ever since, with a particular interest in quantifying information flows when the dynamics occur in continuous variables.

In more recent years, joint work with several collaborators across academia have now led to a new perspective on data science for complex networked systems and new approaches to modeling flows on such systems of systems with applications across transportation systems, critical infrastructure like power grids, and general supply chains.

Root Dynamix is his effort to bring these innovative and powerful tools along with the collective expertise of his growing network of collaborators to bear on problems in the private sector, where they can have real impact in improving the efficiency of flows on systems of systems in a complex and ever-changing environment.