Duncan Watts - Agenda Setters 2009

Name: Duncan Watts

Title: Principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research

Position: 50    Last year: Not ranked

Why? Being a pioneer and evangelist of network theory

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• Chris Hyman
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Columbia University sociology professor Duncan Watts is also principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research where he heads up the Human Social Dynamics group - a research group that studies decision-making in a social context and an era of social networking.

Watts has published a raft of papers and books on collective dynamics including Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age which sets out the theory of the science of networks. It is his work in this area that has brought him to the Agenda Setters judges' attention.

Back in 2003, Watts conducted an experiment using email that showed, on average, there is around six steps connecting anyone to anyone else on the planet. The famous six degrees of separation. A similar experiment conducted by Microsoft Research last year concluded with similar results.

As both pioneer and evangelist for network theory, Watts has helped to change our conceptions of society, according to one panellist.