SONIC was proud to be represented at the 21st Annual #INGRoup Conference in Pittsburgh! Current and former SONIC members presented research on leadership, team communication, and team diversity. Congratulations to all our presenters for sharing their outstanding work! @noshir.bsky.social
Noshir Contractor
@noshir.bsky.social
Noshir Contractor is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University. He investigates how networks form and perform.
SONIC was proud to present at #Sunbelt2026! 🎉 Congrats to alumni Alina Lungeanu, Jasmine W., and Lindsay Young, graduate student Gabriel Garlough-Shah, and Jeffrey Johnson, whose paper was coauthored with Leslie DeChurch and Noshir Contractor. www.insna.org/events/sunbe... @noshir.bsky.social
Sharing that SONIC member Liangdongsheng (Simon) Lyu will be interning as a PhD Data Scientist this summer at Roblox! He will apply data science and empirical analysis to large-scale platform questions tied to user experience, system performance, and product infrastructure. @noshir.bsky.social
The 2026 Lambert ANN SONIC NICO Workshop wrapped last month. 3 days. ~40 researchers. One big question: how do we reimagine human-centered computing research in the age of AI? The answer: not by doing the same research faster. By reconceiving the entire enterprise. @noshir.bsky.social
Here we see CASBS fellow @noshir.bsky.social , no doubt prepping to co-lead, with Lara Tiedens, CASBS's 2026 Summer Institute in AI Methods for Social Scientists from July 26-31... Noshir will be ready 🍦😎 ☀️
Huge #ica26 wide gratitude for president eject @noshir.bsky.social for his service to ICA. Making the Regional Hubs a lasting part of the Association is a major achievement and legacy. 🙏🏻
3/ @noshir.bsky.social at Northwestern University has transformed how we study social, knowledge and organizational #networks; his research encompasses how interwoven structures form, perform, dissolve and reconfigure across science, business, health and spaceflight. nosh.northwestern.edu
This Friday, March 6, join Creative Agency in the Age of AI at Northwestern from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. for a day of panels and conversation on human-AI collaboration. Organized by Duri Long, Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social), and Karan Ahuja. More info: www.hci.northwestern.edu/news-events/...
So awesome when fellows from different CASBS classes connect & bond on just about anything. But this recent connection between 2021-22 fellow @netakv.bsky.social & 2025-26 fellow @noshir.bsky.social - and the reason underlying it - is very special 🤗
This year at @casbsstanford.bsky.social, I chose Study #1, the study named for Elihu Katz. @netakv.bsky.social chose the same study in 2021-22; she wrote this moving tribute mourning Elihu's passing in 2021, surrounded by his legacy. It was never published — until now. medium.com/p/the-networ...
This year at @casbsstanford.bsky.social, I chose Study #1, the study named for Elihu Katz. @netakv.bsky.social chose the same study in 2021-22; she wrote this moving tribute mourning Elihu's passing in 2021, surrounded by his legacy. It was never published — until now. medium.com/p/the-networ...
The Networking Power of Elihu Katz
…and CASBS too.
medium.com
Congrats to NU undergrads Shraeya Iyer, Jeffrey Tu, & Isabel Su presenting at NetSciX (Feb 17–20), supported by @buffett.northwestern.edu scholarship! Talk: A Multiplex Lens on Influencer Performance, Group Synergy, and Network Centralization Co-Authors: Megan Chan & @noshir.bsky.social
CASBS fellows often choose their offices (what we call studies) for very specific, sometimes personal, reasons, or get inspired once they see the list of fellows (‘ghosts’) who occupied their studies through CASBS history. Current fellow @noshir.bsky.social explains exactly why he chose study #1. 👇
New in Research Policy with Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social), Pamela Hinds, Aaron Schecter, and Elisa Mattarelli: Want better ideas in open innovation? It matters who gives you feedback — and who they're connected to. Check it out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Secondhand social capital and idea quality in open innovation communities
Open innovation communities provide valuable opportunities for creators from diverse backgrounds to collaboratively generate and refine new ideas that…
sciencedirect.com
For nearly a decade, Kellogg’s @noshir.bsky.social and Leslie DeChurch have conducted research on simulations of long-term NASA missions to Mars. Learn about their best practices to help keep crews from falling apart—in space, and on Earth. kell.gg/52229c #KelloggLeader
Houston, We Have a Solution
Kellogg researchers reveal a set of best practices—based on simulated missions to Mars—to keep teams working together effectively.
kell.gg
In an in-press study, Leslie DeChurch, Alina Lungeanu, Megan Chan, and @noshir.bsky.social analyze data from NASA space analog teams and Ancient Rome, finding that dyadic shared leadership is uniquely unstable, while solo or 3+ leader structures persist. Read more: journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5...
Congrats to Anni Rowland-Campbell, @oshanis.bsky.social and team for organizing a fantastic Brace Conversations Web Science event in Sri Lanka!
Brave Conversations Sri Lanka was a success! Led by Anni Rowland-Campbell, Trustee of the Web Science Trust, with support from Dr. Oshani Seneviratne, Deputy Director of the Web Science Trust Network Labs, and Fernando Spadea, Computer Science PhD student at RPI.
We’re excited to share that Dr. Noshir Contractor, former President of the International Communication Association (ICA) will be speaking at the MU–ICA Conference 2025. 📅 MU–ICA Conference on Human & Digital Mutualism 🗓 21–22 November 2025 📍 Mahindra University, Hyderabad @noshir.bsky.social
We’re excited to share a new hashtag#CSCW2025 publication co-authored by SONIC’s Director Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social), alongside Diego Gomez-Zara, Dr. Liz Gerber, Darren Gergle, Kapil Garg, Ph.D. , and Michael Massimi. Read Here: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
What Remotely Matters? Understanding Individual, Team, and Organizational Factors in Remote Work at Scale | Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Although knowledge workers are increasingly able to adopt remote and hybrid working arrangements and work productively, many organizations continue to question the effectiveness of remote work and foc...
dl.acm.org
We’re proud to share that Professor Noshir Contractor (@noshir.bsky.social) delivered a keynote at the 2025 ICA Regional Conference on “Generative AI in Research: Challenges, Opportunities, and Innovations” Thank you to Mengxiao Zhu and the International Communication Association.
Replay the panel “From social media to AI: Lessons Learned”, hosted by @noshir.bsky.social, with Sunimal Mendis, @maxschrems.bsky.social and @chrisbail.bsky.social. #DigHum2025 #Recap
DigHum2025 • From social media to AI: Lessons learned • Panel
Video Recording • Digital Humanism Conference 2025
youtu.be
🗓️Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2025 📍Venue: W002 Hall, University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), 35 Reid Avenue, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka 🔗Register here: braveconversations.org/event/ucscco... @noshir.bsky.social @oshanis.bsky.social
Welcome to Brave Conversations
braveconversations.org
SONIC Lab was delighted to welcome back Anup Sawant (2010–2017), a proud SONIC alum and Founder of Pyrack! We’re grateful to Anup for reconnecting with our community and inspiring the next generation of SONIC researchers! @noshir.bsky.social
We’re proud to share that Megan Chan received the IEMS Teaching Assistant Award for her outstanding contributions during the 2024–2025 academic year. Congratulations, Megan, we’re so lucky to have you in SONIC, and we can’t wait to see all that you accomplish this year! @noshir.bsky.social
Congrats to Dr. Neelam Modi on her Ph.D. from Northwestern! Next up: a postdoc at Columbia Business School in the Management Division & Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change. 📸 Pictured with @noshir.bsky.social at commencement!
Join us in congratulating Professor Noshir Contractor (Northwestern University) on receiving the ICA B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award. This award honors scholars who’ve made a lasting impact in the academic field of communication. @noshir.bsky.social
Wonderful to see @noshir.bsky.social be awarded the @icahdq.bsky.social’s Mentorship Award 🥇 #ica25 👏🏼
On June 9, SONIC Lab and @noshir.bsky.social welcomed back Prof. @julianeidhardt.bsky.social (TU Wien) for a talk on “Human-Centered Recommender Systems.” A former visiting scholar at SONIC, she now leads work at the intersection of AI and digital humanism.
New research by Brian Uzzi, @noshir.bsky.social, Satyam Mukherjee, and Yun Huang shows teams are 1.6x more likely to win when they recruit from rival teams—not just for talent, but for insider knowledge. Read: The Upside of Recruiting Your Rivals insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/the-...
To understand what happens when players compete with old teams or former teammates, Kellogg's Brian Uzzi, @noshir.bsky.social, and colleagues studied the Indian Premier League’s cricket players, teams, and match outcomes.
The Upside of Recruiting Your Rivals
Teams that acquire players from their competitors gain an advantage that goes beyond pure skill.
insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu