The Science and Humanity Lab
humanity (noun)1 : compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition : the quality or state of being humane
2 : the quality or state of being human
3 : the totality of human beings : the human race : humankind
Merriam-Webster
Welcome to the Science and Humanity Lab at the Vermont Complex Systems Institute. We are a group of mathematicians and data scientists modeling the human side of science, in both senses of the word:
- we build models to understand science as a complex social system, and
- we model by example how scientists can engage fiercely and objectively on pressing humanitarian questions.
Upcoming
- (Dec 2025) We are co-organizing two upcoming workshops in December at the Santa Fe Institute: (1) Towards a Data-Driven Science of Stories with Peter Dodds, Samsun Knight, and Juniper Lovato; and (2) Understanding the Historical Forces Driving Expansions of Human Rights with David Wolpert.
News
(Nov 2025) New paper in Nature Communications. We contribute a novel statistical method called agglomerative matching to understand the relationship between land rights and reforestation.
(Sep 2025) Welcome Luc Cohen-Wanis to the lab! š„³
(Jun 2025) Sam and Avi present lab work at ICSSI in Copenhagen. Samās talk voted āBest Lightning Talkā!