Bruce Desmarais

Bruce Desmarais is a Professor of Political Science and Social Data Analytics at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), holding the William and Monica DeGrandis-McCourtney Early Career Professorship. He serves as Director of the Center for Social Data Analytics (C-SoDA) and directs the Social Data Analytics (SoDA) graduate program. His research focuses on statistical methods applied to social and political systems, particularly network analysis, with applications to international relations, policy diffusion, digital communication, and regulatory policymaking.

Desmarais earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2010) and a B.A. from Eastern Connecticut State University (2005). Before joining Penn State, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2010–2015).

His work is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. Key research areas include policy diffusion networks, network dynamics in legislatures, computational social science, and the analysis of digital communication patterns among policymakers. He co-founded Public Square Analytics LLC, a firm focused on improving digital public discourse.

Desmarais has published extensively on topics such as exponential random graph models, citation networks in the Supreme Court, and the application of machine learning to policy analysis. His work bridges political methodology, American politics, and international relations, emphasizing methodological innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration.

He is affiliated with Penn State’s Institute for Computational and Data Sciences and has held leadership roles in professional organizations. His research has been featured in journals like Policy Studies Journal, Social Networks, and Political Analysis.