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Management & Organizations

Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change

Co-Director, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)

Co-Director, Ryan Institute on Complexity

Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, McCormick School (Courtesy)

Professor of Sociology, Weinberg

Portrait of Brian Uzzi, Faculty at the Kellogg School of Management

Brian Uzzi is the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.  He also co-directs the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO), the Ryan Institute on Complexity, and holds professorships in Sociology and at the McCormick School of Engineering. He has been on or visited the faculties of INSEAD, Chicago, Harvard, and Berkeley.  His work has received 17 teaching prizes and 15 scientific research prizes worldwide in the social, physical, and computer sciences. 

His research uses social network science and computational methods to explain outstanding human achievement.  Media outlets featuring his research include the WSJ, Newsweek, The Economist, The New Yorker, Fortune, other media outlets and TV, and scientific journals in management, physics, ecology, sociology, medicine, economics, psychology, and computer science have covered or published his research.  Grants for his research have come from the U.S. government and private agencies.

A globally recognized scientist, teacher, and consultant on leadership, social networks, and AI, Brian consults for organizations and governments in over 30 countries, including the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), McKinsey, PWC, KPMG, Deloitte, Baker and McKenzie, Pepsico, P&G, Kraft, Abbott Labs, UNITE, Total Quality Schools, Hearst Media, the World Bank, ABN AMBRO, CreditSuisse, AON, U.S. intelligence agencies, Thomson Reuters, BAE, Google, MicroSoft, Intel, Facebook, and non-profits worldwide.

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

To read more about Professor Brian Uzzi's research and teaching, and his Forbes column on AI, visit his personal web site: kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/index.htm

About Brian
Research interests
  • Social Networks
  • Complexity Theory
  • Embeddedness
  • Diffusion
Teaching interests
  • Leadership
  • Persuasion
  • Networks
  • Teams
  • Decision Making
  • PhD, 1994, Sociology, State University of New York, Stony Brook
    MA, 1991, State University of New York, Stony Brook
    MS, 1989, Organizational Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University
    BA, 1982, Business Economics, Hofstra University
  • Faculty Director, Kellogg Architectures of Collaboration Initiative (KACI), Northwestern University, 2013-present
    Co-Director, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO), Northwestern University, 2007-present
    Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, McCormick School of Engineering (Courtesy), Northwestern University, 2007-present
    Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2006-present
    Professor of Sociology, Weinberg College of Arts of Sciences (Courtesy), Northwestern University, 2005-present
    Professor of Management, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2005-present
    Warren E. and Carol Spieker Chair in Leadership, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, 2007-2008
    Visiting Professor of Strategy, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 2004-2005
    Summer Fellow, Santa Fe Institute, 2003
    Summer Fellow, Santa Fe Institute, 2002
    Visiting Professor of Strategy and Organization Behavior, INSEAD, 1999-2000
    Faculty Fellow, Insitute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, 1998-2000
    Associate Professor of Sociology, Weinberg College of Arts of Sciences (Courtesy), Northwestern University, 1996-2004
    Associate Professor of Management, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1996-2004
    Assistant Professor of Sociology, Weinberg College of Arts of Sciences (Courtesy), Northwestern University, 1993-1995
    Assistant Professor of Management, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1993-1995
  • Chairs Core Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management, Kellogg School of Management, 2022-203
    2023 Network Science Society Annual Meetings Keynote Speaker, The Network Science Society, 2023
    2023 Distinguished Lecture in Leadership, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, 2023
    Chairs Core Teaching Award, 2022, 1 year
    Euler Award, 2022, Lifetime
    Professor of the Year, 2021, Kellogg-Racanti Executive MBA Program
    Euler Award, 2022, Network Science Society, 2022-2023
    Professor of the Year, 2020, Kellogg Executive MBA Program, 2018-2020
    Fellow of the Network Science Society, Network Science Society, 2020
    Professor of the Year, 2019, Kellogg-Racanti Executive MBA Program
    World Wide Web (WWW) Best Paper Prize, 25th World Wide Web Conference, 2016-2017
    Star-Nelkin Science, Knowledge and Technology Award, Honorable Mention, American Sociological Association, 2015
    Starred Outstanding Paper Award, Conference on Complex Systems, 2015
    Professor of the Year, 2014, Kellogg Executive MBA Program
    Professor of the Year, 2013, Kellogg-Racanti Executive MBA Program, 2013
    Vanguard Award for Science, La Vanguardia, 2011
    Kellogg Alumni Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg School of Management, 2009
    Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Kellogg School of Management, 2007, 1999
    Professor of the Year, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, 2007
    W. Richard Scott Best paper Prize, American Sociological Association, 2006
    Professor of the Year, Kellogg Hong Kong University of Science and Techonology Executive MBA Program, 2004
    Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award, Administrative Science Quarterly, 2003
    W. Richard Scott Best paper Prize, American Sociological Association, 2002
    Professor of the Year, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, 1999
    Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, 1994-1995
    Louis Pondy Best Paper Disseration Award, Academy of Management Assocation, 1994
    Faculty Teaching Honor Role, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, 1993-present
    Institute for Socio Economics Best Conference paper Prize, Institute for Socio Economics, 1993
    Institute for Management Science Dissertation Proposal Award, Institute for Management Science, 1992
  • Referee, Industrial and Corporate Change, 2023
    Referee, Nature Scientific Reports, 2017-2018
    Referee, Nature Communications, 2017-2018
    Referee, Nature Human Behavior, 2017-2018
    Ad-hoc Reviewer, Science
    Managing Editor, PNAS
    Ad-hoc Reviewer, Nature
    Ad-hoc Reviewer, American Journal of Sociology
    Ad-hoc Reviewer, Administrative Science Quarterly
    Ad-hoc Reviewer, American Sociological Reivew

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