Interesting Facts About Nicholas A. Christakis

MY ERDŐS NUMBER IS 4.

Here is a short proof:

  1. P. Erdos, L. Lovasz, G.J. Simmons, E.G. Strauss: Dissection graphs of planar point sets, in: A Survey of Combinatorial Theory (ed. S. Srivastava), Springer (1973), 139–149.
  2. G. Palla, L. Lovasz and T. Vicsek, Multifractal network generator, PNAS 2010; 107: 7640–7645.
  3. Z. Neda, E. Ravasz, Y. Brechet, T. Vicsek, A.-L. Barabási, Self-organizing processes: The sound of many hands clapping, Nature 2000; 403: 849-850.
  4. C.A. Hidalgo, N. Blumm, A.L. Barabasi, and N.A. Christakis, “A Dynamic Network Approach for the Study of Human Phenotypes,” PLoS Computational Biology 5(4): e1000353. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000353 (April 2009) MS#098

My Erdős-Bacon Number is 7, because my Bacon Number is 3. Here is a short proof:

I was in This Emotional Life (featuring my friend Dan Gilbert) with John Leguizamo who was in Assault on Precinct 13 with Laurence Fishburne who was in Mystic River with Kevin Bacon.

My name, rendered in Chinese, is 古樂朋.

I am married to Erika Christakis (lucky for me), and we have three children: Sebastian, Lysander, and Lena. Erika has a lot to say about pedagogy, especially the role of play—for instance here and here—and her blog is here.

My parents are Alexander Christakis and Eleni (Lenna) Saranti, and I grew up in Washington DC, here (that is my room in the dormer at the top). But, as a boy, I spent my summers in my grandfather’s summer house, in this village.


Other Links

Preprint: Accurate text generating inaccurate beliefs: a study on the effect of publishing beach pictures alongside articles about COVID-19
Posted On April 9, 2021


Interview With Sam Harris: Facing The Crowd
Christakis Interview By Sam Harris - Waking Up Podcast 2017-10-09
Posted On October 18, 2017


Three Emails From 2015-2016 To The Students Of Silliman College
Posted On May 6, 2016


Dawn Of Social Networks: Hunter-Gatherers Provide Clues About The Evolution Of Cooperation
Posted On January 17, 2012

Coren Apicella, a research fellow in the Christakis lab at Harvard Medical School, spent the summer of 2010 traveling around the remote Lake Eyasi region of Tanzania with the Hadza, one of the last remaining populations of hunter-gatherers on the planet. Their lives offer a window into our past-and clues about the evolution of cooperation. Within the Hadza community, cooperators cluster together, preventing self-interested individuals from destroying the social fabric. What's more, the architecture of the Hadza social network matches that of modern social networks. These findings were published January 26, 2012, in Nature.


ON FACEBOOK, A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND FRIENDS
Posted on January 11, 2010

What your social network says about you.
By Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler (Published here.)