Duncan Watts is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research and an AD White Professor at Large at Cornell University. Prior to joining MSR in 2012, he was from 2000-2007 a professor of Sociology at Columbia University, and then a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research, where he directed the Human Social Dynamics group.

Watts' research on social networks and collective dynamics has appeared in a wide range of journals, from Nature, Science, and Physical Review Letters to the American Journal of Sociology and Harvard Business Review, and has been recognized by the 2009 German Physical Society Young Scientist Award for Socio and Econophysics, the 2013 Lagrange-CRT Foundation Prize for Complexity Science, and the 2014 Everett Rogers Prize.

Watts is the author of three books: Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age (W.W. Norton, 2003); Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness (Princeton University Press, 1999); and most recently Everything is Obvious: Once You Know The Answer (Crown Business, 2011). He holds a B.Sc. in Physics from the Australian Defence Force Academy, from which he also received his officer’s commission in the Royal Australian Navy, and a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University.

Jeff Hancock is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University. Professor Hancock works on understanding psychological and interpersonal processes in social media. He specializes in using computational linguistics and experiments to understand how the words we use can reveal psychological and social dynamics, such as deception and trust, emotional dynamics, intimacy and relationships, and social support. Recently Professor Hancock has begun work on understanding the mental models people have about algorithms in social media, as well as working on the ethical issues associated with computational social science.

Professor Hancock is well-known for his research on how people use deception with technology, from cybersecurity to sending texts and emails to writing fake reviews. His TED Talk on deception has been seen over 1 million times and he’s been featured as a guest on "CBS This Morning" for his expertise on social media. His research has been published in over 80 journal articles and conference proceedings and has been supported by funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense. His work on lying and technology has been frequently featured in the popular press, including the New York Times, CNN, NPR, CBS and the BBC.

Professor Hancock worked for Canada Customs before earning his PhD in Psychology at Dalhousie University, Canada. He was a Professor of Information Science (and co-Chair) and Communication at Cornell prior to joining Stanford in 2015. He currently lives in Palo Alto with his wife and daughter, and in hockey he does his best to prevent pucks from hitting the mesh.