Nicholas Christakis
Director, Human Nature Lab at Yale, and Author, “Blueprint”
Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., is a social scientist and physician at Yale University who conducts research in the fields of network science, biosocial science, and behavior genetics. His current work focuses on how human biology and health affect, and are affected by, social interactions and social networks. He directs the Human Nature Lab and is the co-director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
One body of work in his lab focuses on how health and health behavior in one person can influence analogous outcomes in a person’s social network. A related body of work uses experiments to examine the spread of altruism, emotions, and health behaviors along network connections online and offline, including with large-scale field trials in the developing world directed at improving public health. His lab has also examined the genetic and evolutionary determinants of social network structure, showing that social interactions have shaped our genome. His most recent work has used AI agents (“bots") to affect social processes online.
Dr. Christakis is the author of over 200 articles and several books. His influential book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, documented how social networks affect our lives and was translated into twenty foreign languages. His most recent book, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, is slated to appear in German, Chinese, Dutch, Greek, and other languages.
In 2009, Christakis was named by TIME magazine to their annual list of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World.” In 2009 and in 2010, he was listed by Foreign Policy magazine in their annual list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”
