Damon Centola

Damon Centola is a Professor of Communication, Sociology, and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, recognized for his research on how behavior spreads through social networks. He is the author of influential works including Change: How to Make Big Things Happen and How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions. Before joining Penn, he served as an Assistant Professor at MIT and was a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow at Harvard University. Centola completed his Ph.D. in sociology at Cornell University and is currently a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. His course Network Dynamics of Social Behavior explores the mechanisms behind social influence and behavior change. Through his research, Centola has contributed significantly to understanding complex contagions and the dynamics of social behavior across various contexts, including health and technology.