I am Jordan Kemp, an NSF Graduate Research Fellow pursuing a PhD at University of Chicago Department of Physics. I research novel theories of social and biological organization by studying agent decision-making in noisy environments. By combining techniques from statistical physics, information theory, and cognitive psychology, I derive theories for agent learning and growth, then studies how these behaviors aggregate at the population level to drive inequality and cooperation. I am working on questions such as:
This exciting research blends ideas from physics, machine learning, and behavioral psychology, and hopes to answer open questions from across the social sciences.
It is conducted through the Mansueto Institute of Urban Innovation under the advice of Luís Bettencourt and Arvind Murugan.
In the past, I have conducted experimental research in both quantum computing and simulation using neutral cold atoms with the Bernien Lab at UChicago,
and in gravitational wave detection with Rana Adhikari and the LIGO Group at Caltech