Sustaining the growth and vitality of the M&S discipline

The aim of this panel session is to promote discussion on emergent challenges and the need for advancements in the theory, methodology, applications, education in M&S. The changing landscape in science and engineering (e.g., industrial and defense application, medicine, predictive homeland security, energy and environment) introduces new types of problems and challenges into the M&S domain. In light of these emergent needs how can M&S stay relevant as new critical fields such as global climate change mitigation, energy restructuring, genetic engineering impacts on society and universal health care emerge and come into prominence? Surely the systems point of view and the tools that M&S brings to the table are key to these new directions. So, what are the critical issues and challenges facing M&S community in the face of change and need for rapid discovery?