David Liben-Nowell

I'm an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Carleton College. My interests are focused on the structure and evolution of social networks. I'm also generally interested in the application of theoretical computer science to problems in a variety of other areas, within and beyond computer science; in the past, I've worked on problems in computational biology, complexity of games, and peer-to-peer systems.

Other interests, just because: Adam Gopnik, coffeeshops, Cornell, Cornell hockey, Cornell hockey, cricket, crossword puzzles (solving and writing), donuts, Eddie From Ohio, Harry Chapin, Kris Delmhorst, the Magnetic Fields, learning Yiddish, making lists, Quite Interesting, punting (see also someone who's learned a few of my tricks), road biking, Says You!, ultimate.

Teaching:

• Spring 2013 office hours (CMC 320): I am continuing my experiment with "on-demand" office hours this term; please email me to set up a time. (I'm genuinely happy to meet!) Thursdays are particularly good for me, but I'm generally available. To make an appointment, give me at least 24 hours of notice, and list several times that you would be available to meet in your email.

• Previous courses.

Research:

• Recent papers:
  • David Liben-Nowell, Alexa Sharp, Tom Wexler, Kevin Woods. Computing Shapley Value in Cooperative Supermodular Games. COCOON'12.
  • Flavio Chierichetti, Jon Kleinberg, David Liben-Nowell. Reconstructing Patterns of Information Diffusion from Incomplete Observations. NIPS'11.
    We remain very interested in gathering additional data about the spread of the chain-letter petitions described in this paper. Please visit http://petitions.cs.carleton.edu to help!
  • Russell Buehler, Zachary Goldman, David Liben-Nowell, Yuechao Pei, Jamie Quadri, Alexa Sharp, Sam Taggart, Tom Wexler, Kevin Woods. The Price of Civil Society. WINE'11.
  • Peter DeScioli, Robert Kurzban, Elizabeth N. Koch, David Liben-Nowell. Best Friends: Alliances, Friend Ranking, and the MySpace Social Network. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1):6–8, January 2011.
  
  
• Complete list of publications by topic or by year.
  
  
• Current program committees: WWW'13
• Program committees: SOMA'12. WWW'12; KDD'11; WWW'11; EC'10; WWW'10; M3SN'10; EC'09; ADN'09; WWW'09; WAW'09; ADN'08; EC'08; WWW'08.

Advising:

• If you'd like me to write a letter of recommendation for you, please read and follow these instructions.
• If you're an outstanding math/science student interested in the Goldwater or the Churchill, please read the internal Carleton instructions (Churchill, Goldwater) and contact Liz Ciner for an appointment.

FAQ:

• Q: Hey you! What should I call you?
  A: "David" will do quite nicely, thank you very much. "Dave" is a perfectly fine name, but Dave ain't me. (Thanks to Charles Leiserson for the FAQ idea.)
• Q: Hey you! I'd rather call you Professor/Doctor Liben-Nowell. How is that pronounced?
  A: It's pronounced many different ways, but the correct one rhymes with "ribbon towel."

Contact information: