Duncan J. Watts

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Duncan J. Watts
Born 1971
Australia
Nationality Australian
Fields Physics
Sociology
Complex systems
Institutions Columbia University
Microsoft Research
Santa Fe Institute
Alma mater University of New South Wales
Cornell University

Duncan J. Watts (born 1971) is an Australian-born researcher working at Microsoft Research in the United States. He received a B.Sc. in physics from the University of New South Wales and a Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from Cornell University. He is also a past external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute and a former professor of sociology at Columbia University, where he headed the Collective Dynamics Group.[1] He is author of the book Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age[2] and Everything is Obvious * Once You Know the Answer: How Common Sense Fails Us (ISBN 978-0385531689).[3] The six degrees research is based on his 1998 paper with Steven Strogatz in which the two presented a mathematical theory of the small world phenomenon.[4]

Until April 2012, he was a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research, where he directed the Human Social Dynamics group.[5] Watts joined Microsoft Research in New York City by its opening on May 3, 2012.[6][7]

Watts describes his research as exploring the "role that network structure plays in determining or constraining system behavior, focusing on a few broad problem areas in social science such as information contagion, financial risk management, and organizational design."[8] More recently he has attracted attention for his modern-day replication of Stanley Milgram's small world experiment using email messages and for his studies of popularity and fads in on-line and other communities.

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  1. ^ CDG Collective Dynamics Group
  2. ^ Watts, Duncan (2003). Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04142-5. 
  3. ^ Christakis, Nicholas (24 June 2011). "The Trouble With Common Sense". The New York Times. 
  4. ^ Watts, D.J.; Strogatz, S.H. (1998). "Collective dynamics of 'small-world' networks". Nature 393 (6684): 440–442. Bibcode:1998Natur.393..440W. doi:10.1038/30918. PMID 9623998. 
  5. ^ Herald Sun. Australian social-network researcher Duncan Watts leaves Yahoo. [1]
  6. ^ Floridia, Richard. "Why Microsoft Chose New York City", The Atlantic: Cities, 2 May 2012. Retrieved on 8 May 2012.
  7. ^ Knies, Rob. "Microsoft Research Microsoft Research Debuts N.Y.C. Lab", Microsoft Research, 7 May 2012. Retrieved on 8 May 2012.
  8. ^ Home page of Duncan Watts at Yahoo Research

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