SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS CONFERENCE (SNAC) 2008

AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE HOSTED BY

TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, MUMBAI

(SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND LABOUR STUDIES)

DECEMBER 26-27, 2008

Network theory and methods are increasingly being mobilized to describe, explain, and predict outcomes related to complex systems across a range of sciences, from physics and biology to sociology and economics. Indeed, the broad applicability of network ideas to a range of seemingly disparate social systems is one of its most distinctive features. The overarching purpose of conference is to encourage social network research in India by providing a forum for bridge building among scholars interested in advancing network research and its application to social and business challenges.

OPENING KEYNOTE ADDRESS

NOSHIR CONTRACTOR

Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences

Kellogg School of Management

Northwestern University, USA

Noshir Contractor is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the School of Engineering, School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, USA. He directs the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at Northwestern University and is a Research Affiliate of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He is investigating factors that lead to the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked social and knowledge networks in communities. Specifically, his research team is developing and testing theories and methods of network science to map, understand and enable more effective (i) disaster response networks, (ii) public health networks, (iv) massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) networks and (v) science and engineering networks. His research program has been funded continuously for the past decade by major grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation with additional funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Rockefeller Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.

Professor Contractor has published or presented over 250 research papers. His book titled Theories of Communication Networks (co-authored with Professor Peter Monge and published by Oxford University Press received the 2003 Book of the Year award from the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association. He is the lead developer of CIKNOW (Cyberinfrastructure for Inquiring Knowledge Networks On the Web) a knowledge network discovery, diagnosis, and design system to enable communities, as well as Blanche, a software environment to simulate the dynamics of social networks.

CLOSING KEYNOTE ADDRESS

RANJAY GULATI

Professor of Business Administration

Harvard Business School

Harvard University

Ranjay Gulati is a Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and previously the Michael L. Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Professor Gulati's research has been published in leading journals such as American Journal of Sociology, Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Strategy and Business, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and Academy of Management Journal. He was recently ranked as among the top 10 most cited scholars in Economics and Business over the last 10 years by ISI-Incite.