Advancing The Science of Networks in Communities
SONIC Lab started the school year on a high note at the IEMS Welcome Back celebration!
We’re proud to share that our very own 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 on the SONIC team, and we can’t wait to see all that you accomplish this year!
At the NU-Q RAWABET Conference “Shaping the AI-Empowered Future of Knowledge, Scholarship, and Creativity” (September 1–2, 2025), Professor Noshir Contractor delivered a presentation titled “AI-Augmented Scholarly System.” In it, he examined how AI is re-shaping scientific research through two paradigm shifts: altering the very objects of research, such as “algorithmically infused societies,” and transforming research conduct by evolving from substitution toward enlargement and reconfiguration.
Professor Contractor further discussed the emergence of collaborative intelligence, in which AI, domain experts, and technical specialists converge to build integrated systems of human and machine intelligence that are poised to fundamentally reshape scholarly work.
Learn more about the conference and its full program here: https://lnkd.in/gn79pQ2e
We’re excited to share the publication of “Leading the crew to Mars: Evidence from NASA HERA analog crews” in Acta Astronautica!
This study explores how leadership unfolds in analog space missions, insights that can help prepare for the next bold human endeavor: a mission to Mars. The findings highlight how leadership in extreme environments is dynamic—often shared, sometimes hierarchical, and occasionally fragmented. Understanding these shifts is critical for supporting long-duration space missions.
The article was co-authored by Alina Lungeanu, Leslie DeChurch, Megan Chan, and Noshir Contractor.
👉 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/giSB5VpN
We are proud to share that Megan Chan presented research at the Academy of Management (AoM) 2025 Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark!
Presentation Title: Closing the Loop: Multicommunicating in Multiteam Systems
Authors: Chan, M., Carter, D., DeChurch, L., & Contractor, N.
Date: July 25–29, 2025
This research explores how multicommunication — managing multiple conversations across teams simultaneously — impacts performance and collaboration in multiteam systems. Megan’s presentation sparked valuable discussions with leading scholars in the field, further advancing our understanding of team science and communication networks.
Congratulations to Dr. Neelam Modi on her commencement from Northwestern University! Neelam recently and successfully defended her Ph.D., marking the culmination of years of hard work and dedication.
Next, Neelam will be joining Columbia Business School as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Management Division and the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change.
📸 Pictured below: Neelam celebrating commencement alongside Noshir Contractor, Dipika Modi, Jaymin Modi, and Jignesh Modi
Wishing her all the best in this next chapter!
Congratulations to Professor Noshir Contractor of Northwestern University on receiving the ICA B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award at the 75th Annual ICA Conference!
This prestigious award honors outstanding scholars who serve as exceptional mentors and role models in the field of communication. With a career dedicated towards building academic excellence and advancing communication research, Professor Contractor exemplifies the values of the International Communication Association (ICA).
ICA is a global organization committed to advancing the scholarly study of communication. With over 5,000 members in more than 80 countries, ICA has been officially associated with the United Nations since 2003 as an NGO.
On June 9, SONIC Lab and Noshir Contractor were thrilled to welcome back Professor Julia Neidhardt of Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien), who gave a compelling lecture titled “Human-Centered Recommender Systems: Bridging User Modeling and Digital Humanism.” This event was a special homecoming for Prof. Neidhardt, who was a visiting scholar at SONIC during her doctoral studies.
Now an Assistant Professor at TU Wien’s Research Unit for Data Science, Prof. Neidhardt’s work spans recommender systems, user modeling, tourism informatics, and online opinion formation. Her scholarship appears in top-tier journals like Nature Human Behaviour, and she holds leadership roles across major international conferences and editorial boards, including RecSys, UMAP, ENTER, and ACM TORS.
We’re honored to have hosted her again and grateful for her continued contributions to the SONIC community and beyond.
Learn more about Prof. Neidhardt’s work: https://informatics.tuwien.ac.at/people/julia-neidhardt
New research by Brian Uzzi, Noshir Contractor, Satyam Mukherjee, and Yun Huang uncovers how recruiting individuals from rival teams can provide a strategic advantage.
Analyzing eight seasons of Indian Premier League cricket data, the study found that teams with greater familiarity with opponents were 1.6x more likely to win—highlighting the power of insider knowledge and team dynamics over individual talent alone.
These insights have important implications for hiring strategies across sports, academia, and business.
📰 Read the article: The Upside of Recruiting Your Rivals
Congratulations to Faith Do, an undergraduate researcher with the SONIC Lab, for winning 2nd place in the Social and Behavioral Sciences category at Northwestern’s Undergraduate Research Expo! 👏
Guided by SONIC PhD student Liangdongsheng (Simon) Liu, Faith’s project—“A Network Analysis of AI Intervention in Human Teams”—examined how AI influences human collaboration through network analysis.
We’re incredibly proud of Faith for advancing research at the cutting edge of AI and team science!
Congratulations to the Network Canvas Team — winners of the 2025 William D. Richards, Jr. Software Award!
This award honors lifetime achievement in creating publicly available social network analysis software that transforms how we study and understand networks.
The Network Canvas Team developed a free, open-source tool for social network data collection, making groundbreaking research more accessible to the scholarly community.
Team members: Kate Banner, Michelle Birkett, Caden Buckhalt, Noshir Contractor, Bernie Hogan, Patrick Janulis, Joshua Melville, and Gregory Phillips II.