I received my PhD in 2019 from Cornell University. I find and explain patterns in models of physical and social phenomena. Models of complex systems exhibit universal properties: There is a structural hierarchy of parameter importance and predictive power. Where do such hierarchies come from? What do hierarchies say about model predictions, complex systems and the way researchers make sense of the world around us? In particular, answering these fundamental questions at the interface of physics and biology in the era of big data, emergent phenomena and collective behavior, will move researchers into the next generation of modeling and data analysis.