Dr. Noshir Contractor

Biography

Noshir Contractor is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Science at the McCormick School of Engineering, a Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, and a Professor of Communication Studies at the School of Communication, Northwestern University. He is the Director of the Science Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group. Contractor's research interests include network science, computational social science, web science, and team science, with a focus on understanding factors that predict successful scientific collaboration and the dynamics of human-AI collaboration. His work examines the psycho-social dynamics that influence performance in settings such as human space travel and organizational communications. Contractor’s research has been continuously funded over 25 years by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, NASA, DARPA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has authored the book 'Theories of Communication Networks,' which won the 2003 Book of the Year Award from the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association. A Fellow of the International Communication Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Association for Computing Machinery, Contractor has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Communication Association and a Lifetime Service Award from the Organizational Communication and Information Systems Division of the Academy of Management. In 2018, he was recognized with a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he completed his Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering before earning his Ph.D. at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California.

Research Interests