Nicholas Christakis
Professor of Sociology (FAS), Professor of Medical Sociology and Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School
Dr. Christakis explores how the large-scale, face-to-face social networks in which we are embedded affect our lives, and what we can do to take advantage of this fact
Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is an internist and social scientist who conducts research on social factors that affect health, health care, and longevity. He is Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; and Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He is the Master of Pforzheimer House in Harvard College.
Dr. Christakis' lab is currently focused on the relationship between social networks and health. People are inter-connected, and so their health is inter-connected. This research engages two types of phenomena: the social, mathematical, and biological rules governing how social networks form ("connection") and the biological and social implications of how they operate to influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors ("contagion"). Other ongoing investigations in the lab consider the effects of neighborhoods on people's health, the biodemographic determinants of longevity, the widowhood effect ("dying of a broken heart"), and the genetic bases for human behaviors.
Along with his long-time collaborator, James Fowler, Dr. Christakis has authored a general-audience book on social networks: Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, which has been translated into nearly twenty foreign languages.
He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. In 2009, Christakis was named by Time magazine to their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Also in 2009, he was ranked 50th by Foreign Policy magazine in their annual list of Top Global Thinkers.
In more detail:
Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is an internist and social scientist who conducts research on social factors that affect health, health care, and longevity. He is Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and an Attending Physician in the Department of Medicine at the Harvard-affiliated Mt. Auburn Hospital. He is the Master of the Pforzheimer House in Harvard College.
Dr. Christakis's current research is focused on the relationship between social networks and health People are inter-connected, and so their health is inter-connected. This research engages two types of phenomena: the social, mathematical, and biological rules governing how social networks form ("connection"), and the biological and social implications of how they operate to influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors ("contagion").
He has been examining a very large social network (12,000 people, including family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors) followed for over 30 years. This work involves the application of network science and mathematical models to understand the dynamics of health in longitudinally evolving networks. To the extent that health behaviors such as smoking, drinking, or unhealthy eating spread within networks in intelligible ways, there are substantial implications for our understanding of health behavior and health policy. This body of work has also engaged the spread of obesity and of emotional states such as happiness, depression, and loneliness. Most recently, he has become interested in the partially genetic basis for social network structure. His book on the way social networks affect our lives, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives is available here. This book has been translated into nearly 20 foreign languages, and it has been widely reviewed. His main collaborator in this research is James Fowler.
Other current work in the lab is focused on using large-scale, online experiments to explore social network properties, and on exploring the biological determinants and consequences of social network interactions. Other ongoing investigations in the lab consider the effects of neighborhoods on people's health, the biodemographic determinants of longevity, the widowhood effect ("dying of a broken heart"), and the genetic bases for human behaviors.
Dr. Christakis's past work has examined the accuracy and role of prognosis in medicine, ways of improving end-of-life care, and the determinants and outcomes of hospice use. His book on prognosis, Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1999; it was widely reviewed and was translated into Japanese in 2006.
Dr. Christakis's research has implications for understanding why people become sick and how they use medical care to become well again. It also has implications for clinical and policy actions to enhance the quality of care given to seriously ill patients.
Dr. Christakis received his BS degree from Yale University, his MD from Harvard Medical School, his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He has served on many editorial boards and review committees both in the United States and abroad. Over the past several years, he has given invited talks in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. He teaches quantitative research design, social epidemiology, medical sociology (including Sociology 190 at Harvard College), and palliative medicine.
He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. In 2009, Christakis was named by Time magazine to their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Also in 2009, he was ranked 50th by Foreign Policy magazine in their annual list of Top Global Thinkers.
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