Faculty Directory
Dashun Wang

Kellogg Chair of Technology

Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences

Professor of Management and Organizations

Director, Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI); Co-Director, Ryan Institute on Complexity

Contact

1800 Sherman Ave.
Office 3030
Evanston, IL 60201

Email Dashun Wang

Website

https://www.dashunwang.com/


Centers

Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI)

Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)

The Ryan Institute on Complexity

The Northwestern Innovation Institute


Departments

Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences


Education

Ph.D, 2013, Physics, Northeastern University
M.S., 2009, Physics, Northeastern University
B.S., 2007, Physics, Fudan University


Biography

Dashun Wang is the Kellogg Chair of Technology and a Professor at the Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. He is the Founding Director of the Northwestern Innovation Institute, the Founding Director of the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI), and a Founding Co-Director of the Ryan Institute on Complexity. He is also a core faculty member at the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). His research has been published in general audience journals such as Nature, Science, PNAS, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Physics, Nature Reviews Physics, Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Communications, and more. It has also been featured in virtually all major global media outlets, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Today Show, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, World Economic Forum, Forbes, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, among others. Dashun is a recipient of multiple awards for his research and teaching, including the AFOSR Young Investigator award, Poets & Quants Best 40 Under 40 Professors, the Complex Systems Society’s Junior Scientific Award, the Erdős–Rényi Prize, Thinkers50 Radar, and more. Check out his first book: The Science of Science.

 

Research Interests

Dashun Wang’s current research focus is the science of science, a field that seeks to improve our quantitative understanding of the inner workings of science using the recent explosion of data in science. Wang and his group of highly interdisciplinary researchers take a multidisciplinary approach—combining statistical physics, computer science, and computational social science. They use and develop tools from complexity sciences and artificial intelligence to broadly explore new, large-scale datasets, helping improve the way we understand the interconnectedness of the social, technical, and business world around us.



Significant Recognition

  • The Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics of the German Physical Society (DPG) (2023)
  • Erdős–Rényi Prize from The Network Science Society (2021)
  • Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2021 (2021)
  • Junior Scientific Award from the Complex Systems Society (2020)
  • Poets & Quants Best 40 Under 40 Professors (2019)
  • AFOSR Young Investigator award (2016)

Selected Publications

“Quantifying the use and potential benefits of artificial intelligence in scientific research.” Jian Gao & Dashun Wang. Nature Human Behaviour, 2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-02020-5.epdf

“How I’m using AI tools to help universities maximize research impacts.” Dashun Wang. Nature, 2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02081-6

“Identify hidden spreaders of pandemic over contact tracing network.” Shuhong Huang, Jiachen Sun, Ling Feng, Jiarong Xie, Dashun Wang & Yanqing Hu. Nature, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-32542-3

“SciSciNet: A large-scale open data lake for the science of science research.” Zihang Lin, Yian Yin, Lu Liu & Dashun Wang. Scientific Data, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02198-9

“Data, measurement and empirical methods in the science of science.” Lu Liu, Benjamin F. Jones, Brian Uzzi & Dashun Wang. Nature Human Behavior, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01562-4

“The promise and pitfalls of the metaverse for science.” Dieogo Gomez-Zara, Peter Schiffer, & Dashun Wang. Nature Human Behaviour, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01599-5

“Weak ties, failed tries, and success.” Dashun Wang & Brian Uzzi. Science Magazine, 2022. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add0692

“Public use and public funding of science.” Yian Yin, Yuxiao Dong, Kuansan Wang, Dashun Wang & Benjamin F. Jones. Nature Human Behaviour, 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01397-5

“Potentially long-lasting effects of the pandemic on scientists.” Jian Gao, Yian Yin, Kyle R. Myers, Karim R. Lakhani & Dashun Wang. Nature Communications, 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26428-z

“Understanding the onset of hot streaks across artistic, cultural, and scientific careers.” Lu Liu, Nima Dehmamy, Jillian Chown, C. Lee Giles & Dashun Wang. Nature Communications, 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25477-8

“Coevolution of policy and science during the pandemic.” Yian Yin, Jian Gao, Benjamin F. Jones & Dashun Wang. Science, 2021. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6525/128

“Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists.” Kyle R. Myers, Wei Yang Tham, Yian Yin, Nina Cohodes, Jerry G. Thursby, Marie C. Thursby, Peter Schiffer, Joseph T. Walsh, Karim R. Lakhani & Dashun Wang. Nature Human Behaviour, 2020. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0921-y

“Scientific elite revisited: patterns of productivity, collaboration, authorship and impact.” Jichao Li, Yian Yin, Santo Fortunato & Dashun Wang. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2020. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2020.0135

“Revealing the predictability of intrinsic structure in complex networks.” Jiachen Sun, Ling Feng, Jiarong Xie, Xiao Ma, Dashun Wang & Yanqing Hu. Nature Communications, 2020. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14418-6

“Quantifying the dynamics of failure across science, startups and security.” Yian Yin, Yang Wang, James A. Evans & Dashun Wang. Nature, 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1725-y

“Early-career setback and future career impact.” Yang Wang, Benjamin F. Jones & Dashun Wang. Nature Communications, 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12189-3

“Nobel laureates are almost the same as us.” Jichao Li, Yian Yin, Santo Fortunato & Dashun Wang. Nature Review Physics, 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-019-0057-z

“Large teams develop and small teams disrupt science and technology.” Lingfei Wu, Dashun Wang & James A. Evans. Nature, 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-0941-9

Dashun Wang and Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, The Science of Science, Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Santo Fortunato, Carl T. Bergstrom, Katy Borner, James A. Evans, Dirk Helbing, Stasa Milojevic, Alexander M. Petersen, Filippo Radicchi, Roberta Sinatra, Brian Uzzi, Alessandro Vespignani, Ludo Waltman, Dashun Wang, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Science of Science. Science, 2018.

Lu Liu, Yang Wang, Roberta Sinatra, C. Lee Giles, Chaoming Song, and Dashun Wang, Hot Streaks in Artistic, Cultural, and Scientific Careers. Nature, 2018.

Roberta Sinatra, Dashun Wang, Pierre Deville, Chaoming Song, and Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Quantifying the evolution of individual scientific impact, Science, 354, 6312 (2016).

DashunWang, Chaoming Song, and Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Quantifying Longterm Scientific Impact. Science, 342, 6154 (2013): 127-132. [Cover Article]