MS4: Models and Simulations
7-9 May 2010, University of Toronto
Abstract submission deadline: 20 November 2009

Scientific models and computer simulations play numerous roles in the
sciences, but as a class of tools for use in the articulation of theory,

experiment, technological design and application, and prognostication for
purposes of public policy, they have only relatively recently come under
systematic scrutiny by the community of scholars in history and philosophy

of science. The conference aims to raise and investigate important questions
about the methodology of practices of modelling and computer simulation,
providing a forum for ongoing debates and new angles of approach, on such

topics as: how models and simulations are constructed; how they are
confirmed; how they may be understood to represent and explain worldly
phenomena; how they function in cutting-edge research; and how they
influence decision making in the arena of public policy. A number of

bursaries for graduate students presenting papers will be available to help
defray the cost of travel and accommodation.

Submissions of proposals for individual papers and symposia are welcome in
the form of an extended abstract. For information on submissions,

registration, etc., please visit the conference website:
http://www.hps.utoronto.ca/ms4/index.htm.