Brian Uzzi is the Richard L. Thomas Distinguished chair in leadership at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He also co-directs NICO, the Northwestern Institute in Complex systems and holds professorships in Sociology and in the McCormick School of Engineering.  Over the years he has taught around the world and visited on the faculties of INSEAD, University of Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley where he was the Warren E. and Carol Spieker Professor of Leadership in 2008.

His award winning and highly cited research uses social network analysis and complexity theory to understand outstanding human achievement in finance, consulting science, and the arts. Brian lectures on leadership, persuasion, and change and has won 7 teaching awards.

Among Uzzi's scholarly awards are NSF, NIH, and NBER grants, and several scholarly contribution prizes including the W. Richard Scott Best Paper Award, the Administrative Science Quarterly Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award, the Management Science Best Dissertation Proposal Prize (2nd place), the Louis R. Pondy Best Paper Award, and several conference best paper prizes.

His research has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, American Behavioral Scientist, American Journal of Sociology, and Science. Synopses and commentaries on his research have appeared in Newsweek International, the New Scientist, Science, The Economist, Kellogg World, and other international media outlets. Athena Unbound, his book on gender differences in science was published by Cambridge University Press.

Brian has been awarded teaching prizes in Kellogg's MBA and Executive MBA programs, including the Executive Master's Teacher of the Year Award (3 times), the Sid Levy Teaching Award, Chairs' Core Course Teaching Award (3 times), and the MBA Alumni Professor of the Year Award.

His teaching innovations include TeamNet (c) and LeadNet (c), two 360 degree performance review systems that enable firms and individuals to better manage their professional networks and relationships through developmental feedback and structural mapping. The Six Degrees of Separation Worksheet (c) is a network analysis tool that enables individuals to understand how their networks form and what they can do to strategically improve their social capital and the social capital of the people around them, and finally, his Build Your Personal Board of Directors (c) tool helps leaders build an informal board of directors network.

Brian advises and speaks at major firms worldwide, including the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), Baker and McKenzie, Deloitte, Pepsico, Kraft, Abbott Labs, UNITE, Total Quality Schools, Hearst Media, ABN AMBRO, CreditSuisse, P&G, McKinsey, the World Bank, CIA, FBI, and other organizations.

Outside Kellogg, he has been a summer fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, a board director, and a consulting editor for Administrative Science Quarterly, the American Journal of Sociology, and the American Sociological Review.

Before Kellogg, Brian worked as a management consultant, carpenter, and a musician. He earned his MS in social psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University and a Ph.D. in sociology from The State University of New York at Stony Brook.