Nicholas A. Christakis was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The academy, established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 was charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a U.S. scientist or engineer.
Nicholas Christakis, is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and has been a member of the Yale faculty since 2013. He is a leading expert in the study of social networks and biosocial science. His research focuses mainly on the social, mathematical, and biological rules governing how social networks form and the biological implications of how they operate to influence thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he conducted pioneering research on the connection between social networks and contagion. Christakis is director of the Human Nature Lab at Yale and the author of four books and more than 200 articles. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also has affiliations with Yale School of Medicine and the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science.