David Liben-Nowell


I'm a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Carleton College. In September 2022, I joined the Provost's Office at Carleton, for a few-year stint as an Associate Provost.

My interests are focused on computational social sciences, particularly the structure and evolution of social networks and computational modeling of spoken-word recognition. 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; I've worked on problems in computational biology, complexity of games, and peer-to-peer systems.

Other interests, just because: Adam Gopnik, Churchill College, coffeeshops, Cornell, Cornell hockey, Cornell hockey, cricket, crossword puzzles (solving and writing), curling, donuts, Eddie From Ohio, The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky, 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), Richard Russo, road biking, Says You!, ultimate, web pages that look like they were built in 1996.


A textbook: Connecting Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science

I've written a textbook for computer science students learning discrete math. A revised edition was published in 2022. You can find an electronic pre-publication version of the text at the above link, freely available for personal use. I'd be delighted by comments, corrections, and suggestions.

Summer 2022 Teaching:

  • Previous courses.
  • Research:

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    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
    Email: "dln" concatenated with "@carleton" and then ".edu".
    (For personal email, please use "dlib" concatenated with "ennowell@" and then "gmail.com".)

    Last updated: 31 March 2024.