A huge congratulations goes out to Diego Gómez-Zará for his PhD defense! His dissertation focuses on examining how recommender systems help people assemble teams. The dissertation committee included SONIC’s own Noshir Contractor, as well as Leslie DeChurch and Haoqi Zhang of Northwestern University, in addition to Melissa Valentine of Stanford University.
Contractor Recognized with Honors from ICA and INSNA
Congratulations to SONIC Director Noshir Contractor for his honors both with the Fellows Book Award from the International Communication Association and with the Simmel Award from the International Network for Social Network Analysis! More on this in the following Northwestern McCormick School of Engineering article: https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/industrial/news-events/news/articles/2021/contractor-receives-honors-from-ica-insna.html
Contractor Giving a Keynote at Global Research Forum 2021
SONIC Director Noshir Contractor will be presenting a keynote on “Reimagining Theories and Methods to Understand and Enable the Algorithmically Infused Changing Nature of Work” for National University of Singapore’s Global Research Forum 2021! Be sure to join the forum running from August 23-25, with Noshir’s presentation on August 24.
Register here: https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QYUf8OIbTo6fcGaEFpx7Ew?_x_zm_rtaid=Voe3Q3vPTcOXJ-Z14nyzqA.1629392617169.21390693421fefc137a8df623d8f77e4&_x_zm_rhtaid=136
Contractor Appointed Associate Editor of PNAS Nexus
Congratulations to Professor Contractor for his appointment as Associate Editor of PNAS Nexus, a National Academy of Sciences journal from 2021 to 2024! Noshir will be the Associate Editor for Social/Political Sciences and the rest of the Editorial Board can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/pages/editorial-board
Professor Contractor at the U. S. National Academies Committee on Addressing Misleading Information and Infectious Disease Outbreaks and Biological Threats
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Contractor presented at the U.S. National Academies Committee on Addressing Misleading Information and Infectious Disease Outbreaks and Biological Threats. His presentation, titled “Increasing Awareness about Network Awareness in Scientific Networks,” focuses on why a lack of “Network Awareness” may lead to failures in scientific networks and how technological affordances and algorithmic recommendations can make scientific networks more effective. The virtual presentation can be found here:
Noshir’s Presentation at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting
![](https://sonic.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-7-300x69.png)
Diego Presenting at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
![](https://sonic.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-4-300x183.png)
![](https://sonic.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/MicrosoftTeams-image-3-300x140.png)
SONIC Summer Lab Meeting
![](https://sonic.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-03-at-10.22.55-AM-300x212.png)
SONIC Summer Lab Meeting
![Screenshot of virtual lab meeting](https://sonic.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/MicrosoftTeams-image-3-300x117.png)
Contractor Awarded the 2022 Simmel Award
Congratulations to SONIC Director Noshir Contractor for winning the 2022 Simmel Award, awarded to the keynote speaker at the Sunbelt Social Networks Conference! This award is named for Georg Simmel (1858-1918), a German sociologist who was a pioneer in social structures and social network analysis research. We are very much looking forward to hearing Dr. Contractor’s presentation and attending the conference this July in Cairns, Australia! More information on this award and past recipients can be found here: