Laurent Hébert-Dufresne

Laurent Hébert-Dufresne receives Young Scientist Award SFI External Professor Laurent Hébert-Dufresne (University of Vermont) has been named the 2026 recipient of the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics by the German Physical Society (DPG). ...

SFI's Laurent Hébert-Dufresne (@lhd.bsky.social) is the 2026 recipient of the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics by the German Physical Society (DPG). Honoring “outstanding original contributions that use physical methods to develop a better understanding of socio-economic problems.”

International Honor for Laurent Hébert-Dufresne | Computer Science | The University of Vermont

Congratulations to Laurent Hébert-Dufresne @lhd.bsky.social, UVM Professor of Computer Science and core faculty member of the Vermont Complex Systems Institute, on receiving the 2026 Young Scientist Award for Socio and Econophysics from the German Physical Society! www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/news...

Graphs are maximally expressive for higher-order interactions We demonstrate that graph-based models are fully capable of representing higher-order interactions, and have a long history of being used for precisely this purpose. This stands in contrast to a commo...

New on the arxiv:

“Graphs are maximally expressive for higher-order interactions”

arxiv.org/abs/2602.16937

We clarify central misconceptions in the recent literature on "higher-order networks".

w/ @piratepeel.bsky.social , @manlius.bsky.social, and @thilogross.bsky.social

Explainer 🧵: 1/N

Sensitivity analysis of epidemic forecasting and spreading on networks with probability generating functions Abstract. Epidemic forecasting tools embrace the stochasticity and heterogeneity of disease spread to predict the growth and size of outbreaks. Conceptuall

royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...

Check out new work with @willthompson.bsky.social, @chrisdanforth.bsky.social, J-G Young, & @lhd.bsky.social in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface!

Early bird reg approaching, NetSciX in New Zealand, Feb 2026. And you can travel down the north island for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium the week after. netscix2026.github.io www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/conferences/... @cna25.bsky.social @cssociety.bsky.social @netsciconf.bsky.social

Variational, Nonequilibrium, and Optimization Principles of the Coevolution of Structure and Dynamics in Complex Systems This Collection aims to gather theoretical, computational, and empirical contributions that advance the use of variational principles to explain and predict ...

npj Complexity special collection:
Variational, Nonequilibrium, and Optimization Principles of the Coevolution of Structure and Dynamics in Complex Systems
www.nature.com/collections/...

What do Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Mortal Kombat have to teach us about #cultural #evolution? As a social-technological phenomenon, #arcade game genres evolved like cultural species—some diversified, while others became "living fossils." 🕹️🧪 👉 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

CCS 2026 Call for Satellites is now up on the conference website!
ccs2026.github.io#call-for-sat...

We’re grateful for the incredible response to the call for contributions! Due to many requests, we have decided to extend the deadline until November 30, 2025 (AoE).

🌐 Info & registration: complenet.weeblysite.com
🚨 Extended deadline: Submit by Nov 30, 2025!

What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.

"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"

By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...

American Journal of Political Science | MPSA Journal | Wiley Online Library Amid rapid urbanization in the developing world, there is growing interest in the effects of urban context on political behavior. An underexplored element of urban context is the built environment it...

This paper is definitely outside my niche expertise, but fascinating and really, really well done.

"gridded, orderly neighborhoods reduce the social interactions residents have with neighbors, lower embeddedness in political problem-solving networks, and depress electoral turnout."

Group Science: The Open Source Study of Higher-order Networks With XGI | SIAM The CompleX Group Interactions (XGI) software package offers analytical tools, tutorials, and documentation for higher-order network science research.

We wrote a little something! @nwlandry.bsky.social and I talk about how new software to study networks with groups (like @xgi.bsky.social !) can help interdisciplinary collaborations tackle old questions from social ontology and the science of groups.

www.siam.org/publications...

📢 Keynotes unlocked: 5/12. Thrilled to have Laurent Hébert-Dufresne @lhd.bsky.social as a keynote speaker in Complenet’26! Join us to learn more about #networks and #dynamics!
🌐 Info & registration: complenet.weeblysite.com
🚨 Call for contributions open – submit by Nov 15, 2025!

Next CoCo seminar on October 1st by Juniper Lovato from the University of Vermont!

In 2016 Geoffrey Hinton said “we should stop training radiologists now" since AI would soon be better at their jobs.

He was right: models have outperformed radiologists on benchmarks for ~a decade.

Yet radiology jobs are at record highs, with an average salary of $520k.

Why?

Final week to apply for the 2026 SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships

If you're an early-career scholar and passionate about collaborative, transdisciplinary research beyond traditional departments, this is the postdoc fellowship for you.

Deadline: Oct 1, 2025

Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

Very cool interactive story, @jstonge.bsky.social!

"[...] real social cascades aren't simply branching processes with fixed rules." A self-reinforcing mechanism is what we propose in a recent piece led by the one and only @lhd.bsky.social.

📢 Excited to announce CompleNet 2026! Join us to share your network science research in a highly interdisciplinary conference!

🗓️ 4–8 May 2026 | 📍 Zaragoza, Spain 🇪🇸
🚨 Call for contributions open – submit by Nov 15, 2025!
🌐 Info & registration: complenet.weeblysite.com

The interactive story is by @jstonge.bsky.social and other friends: complex-stories.uvm.edu/friends-funn....

The paper is with friends from @vcsi.bsky.social @sfiscience.bsky.social and @unioflimerick.bsky.social.

Our Physical Review Letter looks at how to get power-law distributions of cascade size without tuning or self-organization to criticality by allowing cascades to improve in quality and jump over gaps or dead-ends

TL;DR complex-stories.uvm.edu/friends-funn...

Paper: journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

🚨 Excited to share a new paper 📃, years in the making, with Zach Wood.

We propose that human evolution is characterized as an Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII).

Explainer and OA paper below:

CCS 2026 | Binghamton, N.Y., USA YouTube video by Watson College at Binghamton University

Done! It was a super fun week of complexity. Huge thanks to the organizers! And see you all next year in Binghamton!!
#CCS2025 #CCS2026
youtu.be/kIK3DleA-Us

Excited to announce the Social Network Summer School 🇨🇱!
📅 Jan 12–16, 2026 | Santiago, Chile
Keynotes: @estebanmoro.bsky.social & @krivitsky.net

@insna.bsky.social & @netscisociety.bsky.social
Apply by Oct 5 👉 snlab-cl.github.io/summerschool/

🎓 I've joined the PhD in Complex Systems & Data Science at @vcsi.bsky.social to work w/ @lhd.bsky.social & @juniperlov.bsky.social to explore social (complex) dynamics

🔬 Huge thanks to @joanagsa.bsky.social & Lília Perfeito for helping me get ready for this chapter

🚀 Excited for this next step!

The beautiful venue of CCS 2025 in Siena, Italy.

Happy to be in beautiful Siena for the Conference on Complex Systems. We are partnering with the organizers for a Collection in npj Complexity on "The Evolving Landscape of Complex Systems." #ccs2025

I'm excited to meet everyone to talk complexity!

Submit your work: www.nature.com/collections/...

Juniper Lovato is a Vermont Complex Systems Institute core faculty member and an outstanding thinker who has been critical to many of our most significant research efforts. Learn about what makes her…... Juniper Lovato is a Vermont Complex Systems Institute core faculty member and an outstanding thinker who has been critical to many of our most significant research efforts. Learn about what makes her ...

We love this research profile on Vermont Complex Systems Institute core faculty @juniperlov.bsky.social 🐙 www.linkedin.com/posts/uvm-vc...

Variations in climate change belief systems across 110 geographic areas - Nature Climate Change Climate beliefs do not exist in isolation but form an interconnected network known as a belief system. This study analyses the density and inconsistency of belief systems and their associations with informational and socioeconomic factors to inform effective climate change communication strategies.

A survey of >99k people (110 regions) shows the Global North has denser belief networks, while the Global South has looser connections

Inconsistency appears in areas (eg Mid East), where support for fossil fuels conflicts with support for renewables/climate policies

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It might start as a joke, belief, or rumor, easy to dismiss. But then it twists, builds momentum, and spreads like wildfire. Why do some ideas die out while others go viral?

A new study by researchers from the University of Vermont and the Santa Fe Institute offers answers: santafe.edu/news

New job ad: Assistant Professor of Quantitative Social Science, Dartmouth College apply.interfolio.com/172357

Please share with your networks. I am the search chair and happy to answer questions!

🐒🕸️ New preprint! Confused about how to model animal social networks?

ASNA can be confusing—but also full of opportunity. We break down 5 common misunderstandings in animal social network analysis and share solutions from behavioural ecology, anthro, stats, & network science. Hope it helps!

A 🧵