Duncan Watts

Duncan Watts is the Stevens University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments across the Annenberg School for Communication, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Wharton School. He founded and directs the Computational Social Science Lab, focusing on social networks, collective dynamics, web experiments, and large-scale data analysis.

His research explores social contagion, information diffusion, algorithmic bias, and computational approaches to social phenomena. Recent publications focus on media ecosystems, misinformation, collective behavior, and AI evaluation.

Article analysis reveals consistent themes:

• Media bias and polarization across digital/news ecosystems
• Computational methods for social system analysis
• Behavioral impacts of algorithms and misinformation
• Large-scale experimental designs

Significant awards:

• National Academy of Sciences Member (2024)
• AAAS Fellow (2021)
• Carnegie Fellow (2020)
• Everett M. Rogers Award (2014)
• Lagrange-CRT Prize (2013)

Leads the Penn Media Accountability Project (PennMAP) and Computational Social Science Lab, fostering large-scale research collaborations.