Laurent Hébert-Dufresne
@lhd.bsky.social
Professor at the Vermont Complex Systems Institute, External Prof at the Santa Fe Institute, Editor-in-Chief of npj Complexity. Likes networks, contagions, complexity, public health, animals, hockey, horror, & black metal Lab: https://joint-lab.github.io
Join us at @css-conference.bsky.social for our "Practical and Ethical Insights on Using AI in Complex Systems" panel! 🤖⚖️ 🗓️ Oct 13 | ⏰ 6 PM EST 🎤: @melaniemitchell.bsky.social, @juniperlov.bsky.social, @scilearn.bsky.social & @skojaku.bsky.social See you there! #CCS2026 #ComplexSystems #AI #Ethics
@lhd.bsky.social talks witches at @ic2s2.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/posts/uvm-vc...
#ic2s2 | Vermont Complex Systems Institute
Laurent Hébert-Dufresne presenting “Witchcraft as Narrative Contagion: Modeling the Diffusion and Mutation of Transmission Mechanisms in the 1692 Salem Crisis” at #ic2s2
linkedin.com
#IC2S22026 main conference officially starting with opening remarks by Peter Dodds and Brooke Foucault Welles @ic2s2.bsky.social
Young researchers, apply for our post-docs! The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester invites applications positions in theoretical and computational approaches to complex systems, information theory, and the emergence of autonomous agency. apply.interfolio.com/189157
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😍 🐙 👀 www.linkedin.com/posts/robert...
I recently finished a Spring Puzzles series of illustrations for the Vermont Complex Systems Institute. On to Summer! | Robert Babboni
I recently finished a Spring Puzzles series of illustrations for the Vermont Complex Systems Institute. On to Summer!
linkedin.com
At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/
Congratulations @lhd.bsky.social for winning the Erdős-Rényi award and giving a kickass acceptance talk at the netsci @netsciconf.bsky.social conference!!
Going to #NetSci2026 (@netsciconf.bsky.social)? Attend our contagions in networks satellite! Talks from: @nwlandry.bsky.social @lhd.bsky.social @leahkeating.bsky.social @julianataube.bsky.social @colincarlson.bsky.social and Jacob Liam Curran-Sebastian joelmiller.github.io/ContagionOnN...
Epidemics on Networks Workshop
joelmiller.github.io
SFI's Laurent Hébert-Dufresne has received the 2026 Erdős-Rényi Prize, the top honor for early-career researchers in network science. “This recognition reflects the deeply collaborative nature of complex systems research,” says Hébert-Dufresne.
Laurent Hébert-Dufresne receives Erdős-Rényi Prize
SFI External Professor Laurent Hébert-Dufresne (University of Vermont) is the 2026 recipient of the Erdős-Rényi Prize, the top honor for early-career researchers working in network science.
santafe.edu
It is our great pleasure to announce this year's Erdős-Rényi Prize winner! Laurent Hébert-Dufresne @lhd.bsky.social
🚨 🚨 How do group dynamics shape contagion onsets and multistable active phases under collective reinforcement? 👉 arxiv.org/abs/2603.28566 @santiagolaot.bsky.social @federicomalizia.bsky.social @leahkeating.bsky.social @gstonge.bsky.social V. Latora @gomezgardenes.bsky.social & @lhd.bsky.social
Interested in the weirdness that is humanity? Ever suspect human evolution itself may be changing? Join my colloquium at the KLI in Austria to learn about: The Science of an Evolutionary Transition in Humans kli.ac.at/en/events/ev... (3pm CET, 9am US Eastern, on zoom and live)
Events | Event Calendar | Discover The KLI
The Konrad Lorenz Institute provides a stimulating and creative environment for fellows, visiting scholars, students, and external faculty.
kli.ac.at
SFI's Laurent Hébert-Dufresne (@lhd.bsky.social) is the 2026 recipient of the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics by the German Physical Society (DPG). Honoring “outstanding original contributions that use physical methods to develop a better understanding of socio-economic problems.”
Laurent Hébert-Dufresne receives Young Scientist Award
SFI External Professor Laurent Hébert-Dufresne (University of Vermont) has been named the 2026 recipient of the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics by the German Physical Society (DPG). ...
santafe.edu
Congratulations to Laurent Hébert-Dufresne @lhd.bsky.social, UVM Professor of Computer Science and core faculty member of the Vermont Complex Systems Institute, on receiving the 2026 Young Scientist Award for Socio and Econophysics from the German Physical Society! www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/news...
International Honor for Laurent Hébert-Dufresne | Computer Science | The University of Vermont
uvm.edu
New on the arxiv: “Graphs are maximally expressive for higher-order interactions” arxiv.org/abs/2602.16937 We clarify central misconceptions in the recent literature on "higher-order networks". w/ @piratepeel.bsky.social , @manlius.bsky.social, and @thilogross.bsky.social Explainer 🧵: 1/N
Graphs are maximally expressive for higher-order interactions
We demonstrate that graph-based models are fully capable of representing higher-order interactions, and have a long history of being used for precisely this purpose. This stands in contrast to a commo...
arxiv.org
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article... Check out new work with @willthompson.bsky.social, @chrisdanforth.bsky.social, J-G Young, & @lhd.bsky.social in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface!
Sensitivity analysis of epidemic forecasting and spreading on networks with probability generating functions
Abstract. Epidemic forecasting tools embrace the stochasticity and heterogeneity of disease spread to predict the growth and size of outbreaks. Conceptuall
royalsocietypublishing.org
Early bird reg approaching, NetSciX in New Zealand, Feb 2026. And you can travel down the north island for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium the week after. netscix2026.github.io www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/conferences/... @cna25.bsky.social @cssociety.bsky.social @netsciconf.bsky.social
Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026
Join us to explore cutting-edge knowledge of complex systems and how this knowledge is being used to drive system change.
tepunahamatatini.ac.nz
Markus Luczak-Roesch@mluczak.bsky.social · 8mo agoReminder: The final cut off for the early-bird registration deadline for NetSciX 2026 in Auckland, New Zealand is Dec 15th. We have also released accommodation options for which we have secured discount codes. Time to register! netscix2026.github.io #networkscience #network #science #complexsystems
npj Complexity special collection: Variational, Nonequilibrium, and Optimization Principles of the Coevolution of Structure and Dynamics in Complex Systems www.nature.com/collections/...
Variational, Nonequilibrium, and Optimization Principles of the Coevolution of Structure and Dynamics in Complex Systems
This Collection aims to gather theoretical, computational, and empirical contributions that advance the use of variational principles to explain and predict ...
nature.com
What do Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Mortal Kombat have to teach us about #cultural #evolution? As a social-technological phenomenon, #arcade game genres evolved like cultural species—some diversified, while others became "living fossils." 🕹️🧪 👉 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....
CCS 2026 Call for Satellites is now up on the conference website! ccs2026.github.io#call-for-sat...
CCS 2026: The 2026 Conference on Complex Systems @ Binghamton, NY, USA
ccs2026.github.io
We’re grateful for the incredible response to the call for contributions! Due to many requests, we have decided to extend the deadline until November 30, 2025 (AoE). 🌐 Info & registration: complenet.weeblysite.com 🚨 Extended deadline: Submit by Nov 30, 2025!
complenet.weeblysite.com
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA" By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com). www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
bostonglobe.com
This paper is definitely outside my niche expertise, but fascinating and really, really well done. "gridded, orderly neighborhoods reduce the social interactions residents have with neighbors, lower embeddedness in political problem-solving networks, and depress electoral turnout."
American Journal of Political Science | MPSA Journal | Wiley Online Library
Amid rapid urbanization in the developing world, there is growing interest in the effects of urban context on political behavior. An underexplored element of urban context is the built environment it...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
We wrote a little something! @nwlandry.bsky.social and I talk about how new software to study networks with groups (like @xgi.bsky.social !) can help interdisciplinary collaborations tackle old questions from social ontology and the science of groups. www.siam.org/publications...
Group Science: The Open Source Study of Higher-order Networks With XGI | SIAM
The CompleX Group Interactions (XGI) software package offers analytical tools, tutorials, and documentation for higher-order network science research.
siam.org
📢 Keynotes unlocked: 5/12. Thrilled to have Laurent Hébert-Dufresne @lhd.bsky.social as a keynote speaker in Complenet’26! Join us to learn more about #networks and #dynamics! 🌐 Info & registration: complenet.weeblysite.com 🚨 Call for contributions open – submit by Nov 15, 2025!
Next CoCo seminar on October 1st by Juniper Lovato from the University of Vermont!
In 2016 Geoffrey Hinton said “we should stop training radiologists now" since AI would soon be better at their jobs. He was right: models have outperformed radiologists on benchmarks for ~a decade. Yet radiology jobs are at record highs, with an average salary of $520k. Why?
Final week to apply for the 2026 SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships If you're an early-career scholar and passionate about collaborative, transdisciplinary research beyond traditional departments, this is the postdoc fellowship for you. Deadline: Oct 1, 2025 Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship
Very cool interactive story, @jstonge.bsky.social! "[...] real social cascades aren't simply branching processes with fixed rules." A self-reinforcing mechanism is what we propose in a recent piece led by the one and only @lhd.bsky.social.
Laurent Hébert-Dufresne@lhd.bsky.social · 11mo agoOur Physical Review Letter looks at how to get power-law distributions of cascade size without tuning or self-organization to criticality by allowing cascades to improve in quality and jump over gaps or dead-ends TL;DR complex-stories.uvm.edu/friends-funn... Paper: journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
