Research AreasSocial Systems
The mathematical study of social systems covers a wide range of phenomena tied to human behavior. The goal is to construct a mathematical model that can account for the way people behave, giving insight into particular actions or broad social trends, and ideally providing quantitative predictions.
Some typical topics include models of genetic or phenotypic evolution, kinematic models of the way humans move alone or in groups, how groups reach (or fail to reach) consensus decisions, how people communicate across space and time, and how social networks form, evolve, and diffuse information.