Brooke Foucault Welles is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and a core faculty member of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University. Combining the methods of computational social science and network science with the theories of communication studies, Foucault Welles studies how online communication networks generate social support and build resilience in individuals, teams, and communities.

Much of her work is interdisciplinary and collaborative, with co-authors from computer science, political science, digital humanities, design, and public health. Her recent contributions include a series of studies of the transformative power of networked counterpublics, where she argues that online communication networks uniquely enable members of marginalized communities to support one another and advocate for social change. Foucault Welles' methodological contributions include techniques for the longitudinal analysis of communication networks using event-based network analysis, and guidelines for the effective use of network visualizations in scientific and lay publications. She has also contributed a number of critical pieces about computational methods and is currently co-editing a book on computational communication research entitled Communication in the Networked Age.

Foucault Welles’ research is funded by grants from the US Army Research Office and US Army Research Lab, and has been featured in leading social science journals such as the Journal of Communication, Information, Communication and Society, and The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She serves on the editorial board of the journal Web Science and was on the organizing board of the 2016 International Conference on Computational Social Science and the Web Science Track of the 2015 World Wide Web conference. She earned her Ph.D. from the School of Communication at Northwestern University and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Communication from Cornell University.

Peter Boynton is CEO of the Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security and Professor of the Practice at Northeastern University. Boynton is a homeland security practitioner who was previously Commissioner of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for the state of Connecticut, an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, a Federal Security Director for TSA, and Director on the White House National Security Council staff. He holds a master's degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, an engineering degree from the Coast Guard Academy, and an unlimited Master’s License for ocean-going vessels of any tonnage.

Ravi Sundaram’s primary research interests lie in networks and algorithms. He is interested in network performance and approximation algorithms for the design and efficient utilization of networks. He enjoys devising efficient schemes for improving the performance of network based applications and validating their use through innovative systems implementations. He is also interested in network security and game theoretic aspects of network usage. In the past he has worked in complexity theory and combinatorics.

Professor Sundaram joined Northeastern in the fall of 2003 after working as the Director of Engineering at Akamai Technologies, where he played a critical role in the buildout of the world’s leading content delivery network. There he also established the mapping group which is responsible for directing browser requests (over 10 billion/day) to the optimal Akamai server.

Matthew C. Nisbet, Ph.D. is Professor of Communication Studies and Affiliate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Environmental Communication; a Senior Editor at ORE Climate Science; and a consulting communication researcher to the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion.

Nisbet holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Communication from Cornell University and a BA in Government from Dartmouth College. Nisbet studies the role of communication, journalism, and advocacy in shaping debates over complex policy issues such as climate change, income inequality, or gene editing. He is the author or co-author of more than 75 peer-reviewed studies, scholarly book chapters, and reports including the recent U.S. National Academies consensus study on Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda.

With his co-author Declan Fahy, he is currently writing a book with Harvard University Press that examines the influence of a special generation of public intellectuals who have helped define the major scientific and social issues of our time. By evaluating the careers of writers like Bill McKibben, David Brooks, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Susan Faludi, Michael Pollan, Fareed Zakaria, Malcolm Gladwell, and Naomi Klein, the book explores the power of ideas and narratives to influence public opinion, inspire social movements, and alter political decisions. In other current projects, Nisbet is analyzing the role of strategic philanthropy in supporting actions to address climate change; evaluating sources of financial support for non-profit journalism; studying the impact of income inequality on public reservations about science and technology; and evaluating strategies for promoting thoughtful dialogue about science and religion.

Among awards and recognition, he has been a Visiting Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, a Health Policy Investigator at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a Google Science Communication Fellow. Nisbet serves on the editorial boards for Public Understanding of Science and the International Journal of Press/Politics, and on the Board of Directors for the International Environmental Communication Association. He is an affiliated researcher with the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine and the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University.