David Liben-Nowell

I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Carleton College. My interests are focused on applications of theoretical computer science to problems in a variety of other areas, within and beyond computer science. Currently my research emphasis is on social networks; 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, 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:

• CS 108 (Life in the Age of Networks), Fall 2009 (3a).
• CS 202 (Mathematics of Computer Science), Fall 2009 (1a).
  
  First-year students are welcome in both of the above courses. CS108 is designed for people with no background in programming or computer science but who are interested in computation and in topics like social networks, the spread of disease (e.g., H1N1 influenza), the structure of the web, and road networks (not to mention kidney donation, balloon animals, and the Kevin Bacon game). CS202 is intended for students who have some experience with computer science, including at least some experience with recursion, and who are interested in cryptography, logic, error-correcting codes, probability, etc. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the suitability of either course (or any other CS offering in Fall 2009).

• Previous courses.

Research:

• Recent papers:
  • Joshua R. Davis, Zachary Goldman, Jacob Hilty, Elizabeth N. Koch, David Liben-Nowell, Alexa Sharp, Tom Wexler, and Emma Zhou. Equilibria and Efficiency Loss in Games on Networks. To appear in SocialCom'09.
  • David Liben-Nowell and Jon Kleinberg. Tracing Information Flow on a Global Scale Using Internet Chain-Letter Data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(12):4633–4638, 25 March 2008. 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 or http://petitions.cs.cornell.edu to learn more or to help.
  
  
• Complete list of publications.
  
• Program committees: 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 email for an appointment. (Update: I'm on leave for 2008–2009, so someone else will be available for advising applicants during this year.)

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:

Department of Computer Science Carleton College One North College St. Northfield, MN 55057

Voice: +1 507 222 4679 Fax: +1 507 222 4312 (For personal email, please use "dlibennowell@" concatenated with "gmail.com".)