Team

Research Group

We are a group of scientists at the undergraduate, masters, phd, and postdoctoral level working on large-scale, system problems in many fields including computational social science, linguistics, mathematics, data science, computer science, fluid dynamics, sociology, nonlinear dynamics, networks, ecology, and physics.

The team was first established 15 years ago by Peter Sheridan Dodds and Chris Danforth. Our alumni bring morally grounded and ethically conscious data science training to their important work in industry, government, and academia.

Current team members

Mikaela Fudolig, Research Assistant Professor, MassMutual Center of Excellence in Complex Systems & Data Science, Mathematics & Statistics

Fitzwilliam Keenan-Koch, MS student in Complex Systems & Data Science.

Will Thompson, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science.

Tessa Lawler, MS student in Complex Systems & Data Science.

Laura Bloomfield, Research Assistant Professor, MassMutual Center of Excellence in Complex Systems & Data Science, Mathematics & Statistics, Gund Institute for Environment

Parisa Suchdev, PhD student in Computer Science, Project: Sentiment analysis of a decade of Arabic Twitter.

Calla Beauregard, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science.

Isabelle Smith, MS in Statistics. Statistician at Vermont Oxford Network.

Livi Poon, undergraduate student studying applications of machine learning to neuroscience.

Ashley Fehr, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science.

Julia Zimmerman, Postdoc in Complex Systems & Data Science. PhD Thesis: Locality, Relation, and Meaning Construction in Language, as Implemented in Humans and Large Language Models (LLMs).

Finn Wormser, research intern, undergraduate computer science student @ Northeastern.

Kathryn Cramer, MS student in Complex Systems & Data Science. Project: Artificial Intelligence, text generation, NLP.

Yoshi Bird, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science. Associate Director of Partnership Compliance at Code for America.

Ben Cooley, Research Data Visualization Engineer, Vermont Complex Systems Institute.

Ale Ruiz, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science.

Tabia Prama, PhD student in Computer Science.

Danny Benett, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science. Folklore.

Wei Tang, PhD student in Mathematical Sciences.

Elisabeth Kollrack, BS student in Data Science.

Staff members

Andrea Elledge, Engagement Officer in the Office of the Vice President for Research, Associate Director of the Vermont Advanced Computing Center.

Alexa Woodward, Executive Director of the Vermont Complex Systems Center.

Julia Kim, Research Coordinator for LEMURS.

Kathryn Stanton, Research Program Manager, Vermont Complex Systems Institute.

Michael Arnold, PhD in Complex Systems & Data Science. Dissertation Online Collective Attention: Standardizing the Measurement of Sociotechnical Systems. Data Engineer at the Vermont Advanced Computing Center.

Former team members

Jane Adams, Former Data Artist in Residence, MassMutual Center of Excellence in Complex Systems & Data Science. Lead designer on StoryWrangler. PhD student at Northeastern University.

Juniper Lovato, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at UVM.

Max Green, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science. Thesis: Some results on a set of data driven stochastic wildfire models. Data Scientist at Tomorrow.io

Sophie Hodson, BS student in Data Science & Engineering. Project: Brain imaging predictors of social violence in children. Data Scientist at Algorex Health.

Danne Elbers, PhD in Complex Systems & Data Science. Thesis: Building a learning healthcare system: a path to optimizing big health data to inform clinical care decisions. Informatics Core Director of Data Management at MAVERIC Boston Veteran's Administration. Assistant Professor of Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

Carter Ward, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science. Thesis: How to Analyze Parental Conversation Online: A Computational Stack for Studying Vaccine Hesitancy. Software Engineer at Innovative Defense Technologies.

Murphy Peisel, BS student in Computer Science.

Jordan Llorin, Research Coordinator for LEMURS.

Melissa Parr, Administrative Coordinator for the Vermont Complex Systems Center, now in Honors College at UVM.

Mariah Boudreau, PhD in Mathematical Sciences. Thesis: Probabilistic Modeling of Disease: Addressing Uncertainties with-in Host and Population-level Dynamics. Postdoc, Network Science Institute at Northeastern University.

Kelsey Linnell, PhD in Mathematical Sciences. Thesis: Leveraging behavioral data for public health: exploring sleep and nature exposure using mobile phones and social media. Data Scientist at LL Bean.

Megan Ardren, MS student in Complex Systems & Data Science, Project: Public opinion on Immigration.

Vanessa Myhaver, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science. Thesis: Simulating the collision of black holes. Mission Design Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Rachel Dotey, Developer with the Vermont Advanced Computing Center and Vermont Complex Systems Center, builder of #UVMComputes

Josh Minot, PhD in Complex Systems & Data Science. Thesis: Gauge against the machine: improving representations within sociotechnical instruments to enrich context and identify biases. Lead Data Scientist at MassMutual.

Thayer Alshaabi, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science. PhD Thesis: Developing natural language processing instruments to study sociotechnical systems. Machine Learning Scientist at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

John Ring IV, PhD in Computer Science. PhD Thesis: Establishing behavioral baselines for computational systems: two case studies. Lead Data Scientist in Cyber Security at MassMutual.

Anne Marie Stupinski, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science. Thesis: Quantifying language changes surrounding mental health on Twitter. Data Scientist at Talkspace.

Ethan Davis, MS Student in Complex Systems & Data Science, Thesis: Quantifying proverb dynamics in books, news articles, and tweets. Digital & Data Science Specialist, Lewis & Clark College.

Kelly Gothard, MS student in Complex Systems & Data Science. Thesis: The Incel Lexicon: Deciphering the emergent cryptolect of a global misogynistic community. Data Scientist at Reddit.

Ben Emery, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science, Thesis: Network scientific and information theoretic approaches to social media during extreme climate events. PhD student at UC Boulder.

Sandhya Gopchandani, MS in Computer Science, Thesis: Using word embeddings to explore the language of depression on twitter. Machine learning for iManage.

Ryan Gallagher, MS in Mathematics, Thesis: Disentangling discourse: networks, entropy, and social movements. PhD in Network Science at Northeastern. Trust & Safety Data Scientist at TikTok.

Emily Cody, PhD in Mathematical Sciences, Thesis: Mathematical modeling of public opinion using traditional and social media. Machine Learning Engineer at Adobe

Lewis Mitchell, Ed Lorenz Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mathematics of Climate. Research project: The geography of happiness: connecting twitter sentiment and expression, demographics, and objective characteristics of place. Faculty member at Adelaide University.

Henry Wu, gap year Research Assistant, Project: Say Their Names: Resurgence in the collective attention toward Black victims of fatal police violence following the death of George Floyd. Undergraduate at Harvard.

Delaney Woods, BS honors student in Mathematics. Thesis: The emotional arcs of horror: a distant reading of Stephen King’s novels. Actuarial Analyst at Milliman.

Amelia Tarren, MS in Mathematics. Thesis: Quantifying language changes surrounding COVID-19 discourse on twitter. Data scientist at Veteran's Affairs.

Colin Van Oort, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science. Projects: Machine learning & computational finance. PhD Thesis: Leveraging domain knowledge in deep learning systems. Computational Finance Lead Scientist at MITRE.

Andy Reagan, PhD in Mathematical Sciences, Thesis: Towards a science of human stories: using sentiment analysis and emotional arcs to understand the building blocks of complex social systems. Data Scientist at MassMutual.

Andy Metcalf, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science. Data Scientist at Optimal Solutions.

David Landay, MS student in Complex Systems & Data Science. Data Scientist at Optimal Solutions.

Ben Kotzen, undergraduate Mathematics major. Game theory applied to cooperation in the US congress.

Aaron Schwartz, PhD in Natural Resources, Thesis: Quantifying the health benefits of nature contact in cities across the US. NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Data Scientist at .txt

Thomas Mcandrew, PhD in Mathematical Sciences, Thesis: Weighted networks: applications from power grid construction to crowd control. Assistant Prof, College of Health, Lehigh University.

Yu Jiang, BS in Mathematics & Physics. MS student in Actuarial Science at Temple.

Suma Desu Bailis, BS in Mathematics, research project on positivity bias in language. Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Google

Sven McCall, BS in Mathematics & Geography, Thesis: Lagrangian coherent structures. GIS Engineer at FatMap, Strava.

Tyler Gray, PhD in Mathematical Sciences, Thesis: Measuring linguistic and cultural evolution using books and tweets. Mathematician at Institute for Defense Analyses

Brandon Whitney, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science. BS Thesis: Categorizing snow depth trends in Vermont with singular value decomposition. Data Scientist at Faraday

Abby Ross, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science. Research project on gender bias in print media. Instructor at Northfield Mount Hermon School

Sarah Howerter, MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Researcher at Packetized Energy

Dilan Kiley, MS in Complex Systems & Data Science. BS Thesis: Characterizing the shapes of collective attention using social media. Data Scientist at Zillow

Lindsay Ross, BS in Computer Science. Thesis: Exploration of story arcs in palliative care conversations using natural language processing. Software Engineer at Apple

Isabel Kloumann, BS in Mathematics & Physics. Research project: building the language assessment by Mechanical Turk (labMT) sentiment dictionary. Generative AI Safety at Meta.

Ross Lieblappen, MS in Mathematics. Thesis: Aggressive shadowing of a low-dimensional model of atmospheric dynamics. Faculty at Vermont Technical College

Henry Mitchell, BS in Mathematics & Physics, Thesis: Chimera states and seizures in a mouse neuronal model. Graduate student at Johns Hopkins

Catherine Bliss, PhD in Mathematical Sciences. Thesis: Description, prediction, and evolution of a large, dynamic network from incomplete data. Faculty at SUNY Empire State

Eitan Pechenick, PhD in Mathematical Sciences. Thesis: Exploring the Google Books corpus: an information theoretic approach to linguistic evolution. Faculty at Maine School of Science & Mathematics

Nicholas Allgaier, PhD in Mathematical Sciences. Thesis: Reverse engineering the human brain: an evolutionary computation approach to the analysis of fMRI data. Research faculty in Neuroscience at UVM

Kameron Decker Harris, MS in Mathematics. Thesis: On-off threshold models of social behavior. Faculty in Computer Science at Western Washington University.

Morgan Frank, MS in Mathematics. Thesis: Standing swells surveyed showing surprisingly stable solutions for the Lorenz '96 system. Faculty at University of Pittsburgh in Informatics & Networked Systems.

Michael Foley, MS in Mathematics. Thesis: An exploratory statistical analysis of NASDAQ-provided trade data. PhD student in Network Science at Northeastern

Eric Clark, PhD student in Complex Systems & Data Science, Thesis: Applications in sentiment analysis and machine learning for identifying public health variables across social media. Research Scientist at UVM. MS Thesis: Multi-lingual valence analysis across 20th century literature and the twittersphere.

Jake Williams, PhD in Mathematical Sciences. Thesis: Lexical mechanics: partitions, mixtures, and context. Associate Professor, Information Sciences, Drexel University

Paul Lessard, MS in Mathematics. Thesis: Collective defection. PhD UC Boulder, Postdoc at Macquarie University

Mark Ibrahim, MS in Mathematics. Thesis: Connecting every bit of knowledge: the structure of Wikipedia's first link network. Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) at Meta.

Laura Jennings, BS in Mathematics & Nutrition. Thesis: Veganation: is this thing on? Exploring perceptions of veganism. Actuary at River and Mercantile

Fletcher Hazlehurst, BS in Computer Science. Thesis: The growth and evolution of the meaning space spanned by the English language over the last thousand years. Programmer at Rock Gym Pro.

Kayla Horak, MS in Statistics, Research Statistician, University of Wisconsin

Ashley McKhann, BS in Mathematics & Physics. Thesis: ODEs modeling chaotic convection: data vs physics. PhD student at Harvard.

Chris Fusting, MS in Mathematics. Data Scientist at Railinc Corp

Darcy Glenn, BS in Physics, Thesis: Characterizing weather in a thermosyphon: an atmosphere that hangs on a wall. PhD student at Cambridge

Kate Violette, BS in Mathematics & Physics. Research project: Dynamic structure of networks updated according to simple local rules. Engineering manager at Hashicorp

Peter Larsen, BS in Computer Science. Research project: Tweeting ehile eating: comparing the sentiments of US business locations using social media. Analyst Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division

Lindsay Van Lier, MS in Mathematics. Scientist at Children's Health Coverage Programs of Vermont

Hassan Ridouane, NASA postdoc. Research Project: A 2-D numerical study of chaotic flow in a natural convection loop.

Dan Brown, MS in Mathematics. Research project: Intelligent traffic signals: extending the range of self-organization in the BML model. Scientist at National Life Insurance