Abstract
The aim of this symposium is to generate a more unified, yet pluralistic, framework for thinking about how similarities and differences in scientists’ modeling goals across various modeling contexts influence which multiscale modeling techniques are justified in those contexts. To accomplish this, the symposium will bring together scholars from various stages of their careers to compare multiscale modeling approaches in physics, nanoscience, economics, and biology. What we find is that some of the modeling goals and practical constraints that influence multiscale modelers in these fields are common features of many modeling contexts—i.e., there are some features that are stable across these cases. However, there are also several unique methodologies that are tailored to specific pragmatic constraints and modeling goals of specific fields (or types of phenomena). This interdisciplinary analysis of multiscale modeling contexts will improve our understanding of where and why different multiscale modeling approaches are justified.
