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Description
I will overview some recent research projects in networks, topological data analysis, and social dynamics. I will start with a brief summary of several research threads, and then I will go into more detail on two topics. First, I will discuss topological data analysis in spatial and social systems. I will present results on voting systems, resource coverage, and continuum percolation with disks. Second, I will discuss opinion dynamics on networks. I will discuss bounded-confidence models, in which interacting individuals compromise their opinions when their views are sufficiently similar, and examine how they lead to opinion consensus, polarization, and fragmentation on different types of networks.
About the Speaker:
Prof. Mason Porter obtained his PhD in 2002 from Cornell University and has been a professor at the Department of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) since 2016 and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Earlier he has been associated with the Department of Sociology UCLA, and the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford where he was professor of Nonlinear and Complex Systems. He was awarded the George Pólya Prize for Mathematical Exposition, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) in 2025, the Robert Sorgenfrey Distinguished Teaching Award, Department of Mathematics, UCLA, 2023–24, and the Whitehead Prize, London Mathematical Society, 2015. He is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), fellow of the American Mathematical Society, fellow of the American Physical Society. He is Highly Cited Researcher in the “Cross-Field” category, according to the Clarivate Web of Science during 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
