Dr. Nicholas Christakis

Biography

Nicholas Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social Natural Science at Yale University and directs the Human Nature Lab and the Yale Institute for Network Science. His research operates at the intersection of social, biological, and computational sciences, focusing on how human interactions are influenced by social networks and biological factors. He is renowned for his work investigating the emergent properties of social systems, including how social contagion affects behavior and knowledge across populations. Through innovative methods, including online experiments and face-to-face interactions, he explores the fundamental nature of human relationships and their evolutionary origins. His research interests extend to social network biology, computational social science, and the development of software tools for collecting and analyzing social network data. Christakis's contributions are significant in understanding human behavior through a multi-disciplinary lens, contributing to the fields of biosocial science and network methodology.

Research Interests