John T. Murphy University of Arizona Department of Anthropology jtmurphy@email.arizona.edu I am a graduate student in Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Arizona. My area of interest is best described as the applied scientific modeling of coupled human and natural systems; this encompasses not only abstract simulation modeling and the consideration of the complex dynamics that arise in such systems but also the theoretical supports on which arguments about such systems are made. I am an unabashed positivist; I consider both static models (simple databases) and dynamic models (simulations), and examine both in a framework derived from the Logical Positivists of the Vienna Circle but informed by the decades of philosophical and technological progress that have accrued since they set down their ideas. View my online CV.

Current Projects

• Developing my dissertation project, The Hohokam Water Management Simulation (HWM). This has involved the development of three distinct modeling toolkits:
  • The Assertion-Based Computer Modeling toolkit
  • The FlowAg toolkit, which contains classes useful for modeling open-channel flow and irrigated agriculture
  • The WatMan toolkit for creating models of functioning irrigated agricultural systems
• While developing the HWM is a full project, writing the dissertation itself is a separate one.
• I am currently working with Professor Lisa M. Curran on a simulation called BorneoSim, a model of the evolution of cooperation among multiple species of fruit trees in the forests of Borneo.
• I am chiefly responsible for organizing the Agent-Based Modeling Group at the University of Arizona.
• J-SNAP, a resource for automating bulk processing of social network analysis by providing a Java wrapping layer for existing SNA software, including Pajek and R.
• Simulation of nonrandom system-dependent assortment in 1-dimensional space, under the direction of Prof. John Pepper; this simulation also relates to the evolution of cooperation, and hence is given the in-house name EvCoOp.

Past Projects

• Team member for "SAIL", a simulation of genetics, kinship, and rule-based marriage created in association with J. Stephen Lansing's research on Indonesia; see the IndoOrigins website for the project's current status.
• Monte-Carlo Association Matrix calculator, in collaboration with Michelle Bezanson
• Primate Anatomical Database, under the direction of Prof. Mary Ellen Morbeck (ret).
• A tutorial for the Repast agent-based modeling system.
• AnthInfo database system for advising, accounting, and personnel information in the Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona; under the direction of Norma C. Maynard.

Personal

I am married to Kerry Lynn Sagebiel, an archaeologist specializing in Maya ceramics from Belize and currently the Office Director for the Phoenix branch of Statistical Research, Inc.. Kerry and I live in Tempe, Arizona, along with our cat, Socks.