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Honors and Awards

Noshir Contractor Named ACM Fellow for Advancements in Computing

Contractor is among 58 fellows in the 2019 class

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has named Northwestern University professor Noshir Contractor as one of its 2019 ACM Fellows.

ACM Fellows comprise an elite group that represents less than 1 percent of the association’s global membership. This year’s class was selected for far-reaching accomplishments that define the digital age and greatly impact our professional and personal lives. 

Noshir ContractorContractor was honored for “contributions to advances in computational social science, network science, and web science.” He will be formally recognized on June 20, 2020, at ACM’s annual awards banquet in San Francisco. 

“Computing technology has had a tremendous impact in shaping how we live and work today,” said ACM President Cherri M. Pancake. “All of the technologies that directly or indirectly influence us are the result of countless hours of collaborative and/or individual work, as well as creative inspiration and, at times, informed risk-taking.”

Contractor is the Jane S. and William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering, professor of management and organizations in the Kellogg School of Management, and professor of communication in the School of Communication. 

A network scientist, Contractor investigates factors that lead to the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked social and knowledge networks in a wide variety of contexts, including communities of practice, enterprises, science and engineering communities, public health, virtual worlds, and long-distance space exploration.

He directs Northwestern’s Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) research group, which advances social network theories, methods, and tools to better understand and meet the needs of diverse communities. 

ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. Its fellows program celebrates the exceptional contributions of the leading members in the computing field. These individuals have helped to enlighten researchers, developers, practitioners, and end users of information technology throughout the world.