Nicholas A. Christakis
Encyclopedia
Nicholas A. Christakis is a Greek American physician
and sociologist known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic and biosocial determinants of health, longevity, and behavior. He is a Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Care Policy and a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
; a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
; and an Attending Physician at the Harvard-affiliated Mt. Auburn Hospital.
In 2009, Christakis and his wife, Erika Christakis, were appointed Co-Masters of Pforzheimer House
, one of Harvard's twelve residential houses. At Harvard, Christakis is also known for his popular undergraduate lecture class "Life and Death in the USA," which is podcast publicly, as well as for attracting a diverse group of faculty and students from across the University's departments and professional schools into his research group.
In 2009 and again in 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers. In 2009, he was named to the Time 100
, Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He was elected to the Institute of Medicine
of the National Academy of Sciences
in 2006, and he was named a Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010.
in 1984, where he ranked top among seniors majoring in the sciences, winning Yale's prestigious Chittenden Prize at the University Commencement. He then moved to Cambridge, MA where he received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School
and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health
in 1989.
In 1989, Christakis moved to Philadelphia, PA, where he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and then spent four years studying medical sociology
. He started his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania
as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar
, and worked as an Assistant Instructor and then Instructor in the Department of Medicine. He worked with Renee C. Fox, a distinguished American medical sociologist; other members of his dissertation committee were methodologist Paul Allison and physician Sankey Williams. Christakis studied the role of prognosis in medical thought and practice, documenting and explaining how physicians are socialized to avoid making prognoses. He argued that prognoses patients receive even from the best-trained American doctors are driven not only by professional norms but also by religious, moral, and even quasi-magical beliefs (such as the "self-fulfilling prophecy").
Upon graduating in 1995, he was recruited by the University of Chicago
, where he started as an Assistant Professor with joint appointments in Departments of Sociology and Medicine. His first book, Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1999. Six years after arriving at Chicago, Christakis was awarded tenure in both Sociology and Medicine. However, in 2001, Christakis left the University of Chicago to take up a position as Professor of Medical Sociology at Harvard Medical School
; in 2005, he was also appointed as Professor of Sociology in the Harvard Department of Sociology; and, in 2009, he was appointed as Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
, sociology
, sociobiology
, behavioral genetics, and health care policy. He is an author or editor of four books, more than 120 peer-reviewed academic articles, and numerous editorials in national and international publications.
Christakis attracted international media attention in 2007 with the publication in the New England Journal of Medicine
of the results of a study in Framingham, MA, which showed that obesity
can spread from a person to person, through social network
s, much like a virus during an epidemic
.
Over the next few years, working with a former Harvard graduate student and now Professor at UCSD, James H. Fowler
, and a team of researchers in his Harvard Medical School
group, Christakis published a series of articles arguing that social networks can transmit not only obesity but also other health states and behaviors, including smoking, drinking and happiness. The Christakis Group at Harvard Medical School
has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) and by the Pioneer Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and by other funders. In a TED (conference)
talk , Christakis summarizes the broader implications of the role of networks in human activity.
In 2009, his group extended the study of social networks to genetics, publishing in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences a finding that social network position may be partially heritable, and specifically that an increase in twins' shared genetic material corresponds to differences in their social networks. And in 2011, Fowler and Christakis published a follow-up paper on "Correlated Genotypes in Friendship Networks" in PNAS.
In 2010, Christakis and Fowler published a paper (based on the spread of H1N1 in Harvard College in 2009) regarding the use of social networks as 'sensors' for forecasting epidemics (of germs and other phenomena), beginning a program of research to deploy social networks to improve health and health care.
, and makes several new conclusions about the influence of social networks on human health and behavior. In Connected, they put forward their "Three Degrees of Influence" rule about human behavior, which theorizes that each person's individual social influence stretches three degrees before it fades out.
Christakis is also the author of Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care (University of Chicago Press, 1999), and he has edited two clinical textbooks published by Oxford University Press
.
. He was certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine
in 1993. Before coming to Boston, Christakis was a home hospice physician, taking care of home-bound, dying patients. In Boston, from 2002 to 2006, Christakis worked as an attending physician on the Palliative Medicine Consult Service at Massachusetts General Hospital
. In 2006, he moved to Mt. Auburn Hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital in Cambridge, MA, where he serves as an attending physician in the Department of Medicine, teaching about end-of-life care and the conduct of clinical research.
Bereavement, Caregiver Burden, Marriage and Health
Prognosis
Biological Networks
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and sociologist known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic and biosocial determinants of health, longevity, and behavior. He is a Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Care Policy and a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
; a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences is the largest of the seven faculties that constitute Harvard University.Headquartered principally in Cambridge, Massachusetts and centered in the historic Harvard Yard, FAS is the only division of the university responsible for both undergraduate and...
; and an Attending Physician at the Harvard-affiliated Mt. Auburn Hospital.
In 2009, Christakis and his wife, Erika Christakis, were appointed Co-Masters of Pforzheimer House
Pforzheimer House
Pforzheimer House, nicknamed PfoHo , is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University. It was named in 1995 for Carol K. and Carl H...
, one of Harvard's twelve residential houses. At Harvard, Christakis is also known for his popular undergraduate lecture class "Life and Death in the USA," which is podcast publicly, as well as for attracting a diverse group of faculty and students from across the University's departments and professional schools into his research group.
In 2009 and again in 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers. In 2009, he was named to the Time 100
Time 100
Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. First published in 1999 as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has become an annual event.-History and format:...
, Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He was elected to the Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
in 2006, and he was named a Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010.
Education and Early Career
Christakis started his education and academic career in science and medicine. He received his B.S. in Biology from Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1984, where he ranked top among seniors majoring in the sciences, winning Yale's prestigious Chittenden Prize at the University Commencement. He then moved to Cambridge, MA where he received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health
Harvard School of Public Health
The Harvard School of Public Health is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the...
in 1989.
In 1989, Christakis moved to Philadelphia, PA, where he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and then spent four years studying medical sociology
Medical sociology
Medical sociology is the sociological analysis of medical organizations and institutions; the production of knowledges and selection of methods, the actions and interactions of healthcare professionals, and the social or cultural effects of medical practice...
. He started his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the United States' largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care; it is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The foundation's mission is to improve the health and health care of all Americans...
, and worked as an Assistant Instructor and then Instructor in the Department of Medicine. He worked with Renee C. Fox, a distinguished American medical sociologist; other members of his dissertation committee were methodologist Paul Allison and physician Sankey Williams. Christakis studied the role of prognosis in medical thought and practice, documenting and explaining how physicians are socialized to avoid making prognoses. He argued that prognoses patients receive even from the best-trained American doctors are driven not only by professional norms but also by religious, moral, and even quasi-magical beliefs (such as the "self-fulfilling prophecy").
Upon graduating in 1995, he was recruited by the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he started as an Assistant Professor with joint appointments in Departments of Sociology and Medicine. His first book, Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1999. Six years after arriving at Chicago, Christakis was awarded tenure in both Sociology and Medicine. However, in 2001, Christakis left the University of Chicago to take up a position as Professor of Medical Sociology at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
; in 2005, he was also appointed as Professor of Sociology in the Harvard Department of Sociology; and, in 2009, he was appointed as Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Research
Nicholas Christakis uses quantitative methods (e.g. statistical models of network formation, social science experiments, and statistics and econometrics for large observational studies) to study social networks and other social factors that affect health. His work has spanned the fields of demographyDemography
Demography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...
, sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, sociobiology
Sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology,...
, behavioral genetics, and health care policy. He is an author or editor of four books, more than 120 peer-reviewed academic articles, and numerous editorials in national and international publications.
Christakis attracted international media attention in 2007 with the publication in the New England Journal of Medicine
New England Journal of Medicine
The New England Journal of Medicine is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It describes itself as the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world.-History:...
of the results of a study in Framingham, MA, which showed that obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
can spread from a person to person, through social network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
s, much like a virus during an epidemic
Epidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
.
Over the next few years, working with a former Harvard graduate student and now Professor at UCSD, James H. Fowler
James H. Fowler
James H. Fowler is an American social scientist specializing in social networks, cooperation, political participation, and genopolitics...
, and a team of researchers in his Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
group, Christakis published a series of articles arguing that social networks can transmit not only obesity but also other health states and behaviors, including smoking, drinking and happiness. The Christakis Group at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
(NIH) and by the Pioneer Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and by other funders. In a TED (conference)
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
talk , Christakis summarizes the broader implications of the role of networks in human activity.
In 2009, his group extended the study of social networks to genetics, publishing in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences a finding that social network position may be partially heritable, and specifically that an increase in twins' shared genetic material corresponds to differences in their social networks. And in 2011, Fowler and Christakis published a follow-up paper on "Correlated Genotypes in Friendship Networks" in PNAS.
In 2010, Christakis and Fowler published a paper (based on the spread of H1N1 in Harvard College in 2009) regarding the use of social networks as 'sensors' for forecasting epidemics (of germs and other phenomena), beginning a program of research to deploy social networks to improve health and health care.
Books
Along with Fowler, Christakis is the author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, published in September 2009. It was awarded the "Books for a Better Life" Award in 2010. Connected draws on previously published and unpublished studies, including the Framingham Heart StudyFramingham Heart Study
The Framingham Heart Study is a long-term, ongoing cardiovascular study on residents of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The study began in 1948 with 5,209 adult subjects from Framingham, and is now on its third generation of participants...
, and makes several new conclusions about the influence of social networks on human health and behavior. In Connected, they put forward their "Three Degrees of Influence" rule about human behavior, which theorizes that each person's individual social influence stretches three degrees before it fades out.
Christakis is also the author of Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care (University of Chicago Press, 1999), and he has edited two clinical textbooks published by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
.
Clinical Activities
Nicholas Christakis trained as a general internist and his current practice is exclusively in palliative medicine. He completed his residency in 1991 at the University of Pennsylvania School of MedicineUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
The Perelman School of Medicine , formerly the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was founded in 1765, making it the oldest American medical school. As part of the University of Pennsylvania, it is located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is widely...
. He was certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine
American Board of Internal Medicine
The American Board of Internal Medicine is a non-profit, independent physician evaluation organization committed to continuously improving the profession for the public good by certifying physicians who practice internal medicine and its sub-specialties...
in 1993. Before coming to Boston, Christakis was a home hospice physician, taking care of home-bound, dying patients. In Boston, from 2002 to 2006, Christakis worked as an attending physician on the Palliative Medicine Consult Service at Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
. In 2006, he moved to Mt. Auburn Hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital in Cambridge, MA, where he serves as an attending physician in the Department of Medicine, teaching about end-of-life care and the conduct of clinical research.
Selected writings
Social NetworksBereavement, Caregiver Burden, Marriage and Health
Prognosis
Biological Networks
External links
- Personal webpage for Nicholas A. Christakis
- Pubmed page with papers by Nicholas A. Christakis