Faculty & Contributors
A Community of Thought Leaders
CSSI is proud to bring together so many top experts in the fields of complex sciences. The core of our team is made up of professors, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows at the Kellogg School of Management and Northwestern University, but our community of collaborators spans the globe. Here’s a look at the team behind the science of science, as well as key contributors and supporters.
Join the CSSI Community
The Center is an extraordinary investment, bringing together world-leading researchers to decode innovation and the progress of knowledge.
Leadership Network
Dashun Wang, Director
Professor of Management & Organizations / Professor of Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences / Core faculty at Northwestern Institute of Complex Systems (NICO)
Professor Wang’s research focuses on the science of science. He joined the faculty at Kellogg in 2016 after teaching at Pennsylvania State University and leading a big data initiative at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He also holds appointments at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science and NICO.
Luis Amaral
Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering / Professor of Physics & Astronomy / Co-Director, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) Faculty
Professor Amaral conducts and directs research that provides insight into the emergence, evolution and stability of complex social and biological systems. He holds appointments at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science and the Feinberg School of Medicine.
James Evans
Professor / Director, Knowledge Lab / Faculty Director, Masters Program in Computational Social Science, University of Chicago
Professor Evans’s research focuses on the collective system of thinking and knowing. At the University of Chicago, he is Director of Knowledge Lab, which has collaborative, granting and employment opportunities. Evans also founded and now directs on the Computational Social Science program at Chicago, and sponsors an associated Computational Social Science workshop.
Santo Fortunato
Professor / Director of the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research, Indiana University
Professor Fortunato’s research areas are network science and computational social science, and aims to detect community structures in networks, analyze and model social and information networks, identify citation patterns, and more. Fortunato joined the faculty at Indiana University in 2016.
Benjamin Jones
Gordon and Llura Gund Family Professor of Entrepreneurship / Professor of Strategy / Faculty Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Kellogg
Professor Jones is faculty director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Kellogg, which equips leaders to drive the kind of innovation, entrepreneurship and growth that matters in today’s world. His research focuses on innovation and creativity, and he has done work on global economic development, including the roles of education, climate and national leadership in explaining the wealth and poverty of nations.
Brian Uzzi
Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change / Co-Director, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) Faculty / Director, Kellogg Architectures of Collaboration Initiative (KACI)
Professor Uzzi is a globally recognized teacher, consultant and speaker on leadership, social networks, data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning. He has lectured and advised companies and governments around the world and has been on or visited the faculties of INSEAD, University of Chicago, University of California at Berkeley and Harvard University.
Researchers
Nic Fishman
Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Nic Fishman (he/they) is currently an MSc candidate in mathematics at Oxford University, after which they will be a Ph.D student in statistics at Harvard University. They completed their Bachelors in Computer Science and Statistics at Stanford University in 2021. They work on methods for studying large datasets in computational social science and computational biology, with a particular interest in causality.
Alexander Furnas
Research Assistant Professor, Kellogg School of Management
Alexander C. Furnas PhD (Zander), is a Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Science of Science and Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He has a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan. He researches the political economy of information, with a focus on the production, dissemination and uptake of science and expertise in the policymaking process. His dissertation examines how congressional staffers evaluate and use privately provisioned information produced by outside organizations. He has published articles in the American Political Science Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Legislative Studies Quarterly, among others. More generally, he studies the use of information, science, and expertise in policymaking, interest groups, and elite political behavior using survey, text analysis and network methods.
Jian Gao
Research Assistant Professor, Kellogg School of Management
Jian Gao is a Research Assistant Professor in the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) at the Kellogg School of Management and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) at Northwestern University. He obtained a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research interests lie in the science of science, computational socioeconomics, network science, and economic complexity. His recent work focuses on measuring the disparities in exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and estimating the benefits of AI in science and innovation.
Diego Gómez-Zará
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Diego Gómez-Zará is a Ph.D. in Technology and Social Behavior at Northwestern University. He also graduated with a Ms. in Computer Science at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His research interests are computational behavior modeling, social networks, groups, and systems. Grounded in human-computer interaction and network science, Diego studies how people assemble groups using online systems. Diego’s work has been published in multiple venues, including the ACM CHI and CSCW conferences. His dissertation research was awarded the 2020 Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant and the National Science Foundation SES-2021117. In 2018, he became a Ph.D. fellow of the Northwestern Segal Institute’s Design Cluster. In the past, he has taught courses on web technologies and social networks. Recently, Diego was an intern at the Snap Inc. Research Team. He is currently serving as a member of the ACM CSCW Steering committee.
Zihang Lin
Visiting Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Zihang Lin is a Visiting Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is also an undergraduate in the School of Computer Science at Fudan University, China. His research interests include network science, computational social science, and science of science. He is engaged in large-scale scientific data processing and analysis of multiple databases, trying to attain a deeper understanding of science and innovation.
Wenyuan Liu
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Wenyuan Liu is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) at the Kellogg School of Management. He obtained a bachelor's degree in physics from Wuhan University in China. Then, he moved to Singapore and obtained a Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University. After that, he worked as a research fellow there. His research interests include network theory and science of science
Zifeng Liu
Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Zifeng Liu is a Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellow in the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) at Kellogg School of Management. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Physics from Xi'an Jiaotong University in China 2021. His research interests lie in the science of science, network science and mathematical modeling.
Yifan Qian
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Yifan Qian is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, London, U.K. His research interest is broadly concerned with computational social science and combines theories and methods from network science, sociology, machine learning, and data science. The general goal of his work is to better understand the structure, functioning, and consequences of complex large-scale networks across a number of empirical domains including citation networks, social networks, and collaboration networks. He received a B.Sc. degree in information and computing science and a M.Sc. degree in computer science from Beihang University in Beijing, China in 2014 and 2017, respectively.
Binglu Wang
Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Binglu Wang is a Ph.D. student in Management & Organizations (MORS) at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, with affiliations at the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). Her research involves computational social science, technology & innovation, and social networks, with a focus on understanding how community collapses from large-scale datasets. She received her bachelor's degree in information management and information system from Peking University in 2019.
Yian Yin
Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow, McCormick School of Engineering
Yian Yin is a Ph.D. candidate of Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences (IEMS) at the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University, with affiliations at the Center for Science of Science and Innovation and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). He studies computational social science, the science of science, and complex systems, with a particular interest in quantitative understanding of success and failure in human activities through interdisciplinary approaches. Before joining Northwestern, Yian obtained his bachelor’s degree in statistics and economics from Peking University in 2016.
ALUMNI
Yi Bu
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Nima Dehmamy
Research Assistant Professor, Kellogg School of Management
Woo Seong Jo
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Lu Liu
Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Suman Kalyan Maity
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Minsu Park
Research Fellow, Kellogg School of Management
Giorgio Tripodi
Pre-Doctoral Visiting Scholar, Kellogg School of Management
Yang Wang
Visiting Professor, Kellogg School of Management
Researcher Network
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Pierre Azoulay
Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Albert Laszlo-Barabisi
Robert Gray Doge Professor of Network Science, Northeastern University
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Nicola Bianchi
Assistant Professor, Kellogg School of Management
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Jillian Chown
Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
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Jeanneate Colvyas
Associate Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and Associate Professor of Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, Associate Professor and Executive Board Member, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO), Associate Professor of Management & Operations, Kellogg School of Management (Courtesy)
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Noshir Contractor
Professor of Behavioral Sciences, Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering
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Leslie Dechurch
Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern School of Communication
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Ying Ding
Bill & Luis Suit Professor, School of Information
Adjunct Professor at Department of Health, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin -
Eli Finkel
Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management / Professor of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences
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Steve Franconeri
Professor of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences / Professor of Design, McCormick School of Engineering (Courtesy) / Director, Northwestern Cognitive Science Program, Professor of Leadership, Kellogg School of Management (Courtesy)
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C. Lee Giles
David Reese Professor, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University
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Jason Hartline
Associate Professor of Computer Science, McCormick School of Engineering
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Danqi Hu
Assistant Professor of Accounting Information & Management, Kellogg School of Management
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Nour Kteily
Associate Professor, Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
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Vincent Lariviere
Professor of Information Science, University of Montreal
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Han Liu
Associate Professor of Statistics and Computer Science, McCormick School of Engineering
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Robert McDonald
Professor of Finance and Gaylord Freeman Distinguished Chair in Banking, Kellogg School of Management
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Filippo Mezzanotti
Assistant Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management
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Sam Molyneux
GM, Meta, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
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William Ocasio
John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
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Adam Pah
Clinical Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Associate Director, Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
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Dimitris Papanikolaou
Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management
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Hatim Rahman
Assistant Professor, Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
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Iyad Rahwan
Director, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
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Luis Rayo
Erwin P. Nemmers Professor of Strategy, Kellogg School of Management
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Lauren Rivera
Associate Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
Associate Professor of Sociology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences (Courtesy) -
Nicole Stephens
Associate Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
Associate Professor of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences (Courtesy) -
Robert Sinatra
Assistant Professor, IT University of Copenhagen
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H. Eugene Stanley
Professor of Physics, Boston University
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Jie Tang
Professor, Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University
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Lav Varshney
Assistant Professor, University of Illinois
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Ludo Waltman
Professor of Quantitative Science Studies, Leiden University
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Kuansan Wang
Managing Director, Microsoft Research Outreach
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Adam Waytz
Associate Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
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Jevin West
Associate Professor, University of Washington
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Teresa K. Woodruff
Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine
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Hyejin Youn
Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management
Senior Administrators
Krisztina Eleki
Associate Director of Administration for the Kellogg Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI)
Krisztina directs the Center's administrative, operational, financial, and business functions in support of CSSI's research programs and mission. In her position, Krisztina is also responsible for developing and managing grants, planning and executing events, and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders in the science of science arena.
Alanna Lazarowich
Associate Director of Strategy, Partnership & Innovation for the Kellogg Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) and the Associate Director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Alanna collaborates with faculty and industry experts in the development of research partnerships and curricular innovations and facilitates the translation and distribution of intellectual content.