David Liben-Nowell

I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Carleton College. My interests are focused on applications of theoretical computer science to problems in a variety of other areas, within and beyond computer science. Currently my research emphasis is on social networks; in the past, I've worked on problems in computational biology, complexity of games, and peer-to-peer systems.

Other interests, just because: Adam Gopnik, coffeeshops, Cornell, Cornell hockey, cricket, crossword puzzles (solving and writing), donuts, Eddie From Ohio, Harry Chapin, Kris Delmhorst, the Magnetic Fields, learning Yiddish, making lists, Quite Interesting, punting (see also someone who's learned a few of my tricks), road biking, Says You!, ultimate.

Teaching:

• CS 252 (Algorithms), Winter 2010 (2a).
  
  
• Winter 2010 office hours (CMC 320): Monday 11:00–12:00p; Wednesday 12:45–1:45p. I'm also experimenting this term with "on-demand" office hours: I am especially available for appointments all day on Tuesdays and Friday afternoons (12:00–3:00p). You can email me to make an appointment during any of those times (or other times if you can't meet during those times). Give me at least 24 hours of notice, and list the times that you would be available to meet in your email.
  

• Previous courses.

Research:

• Recent papers:
  • Joshua R. Davis, David Liben-Nowell, Alexa Sharp, and Tom Wexler. Mediated equilibria in load-balancing games. WINE'09.
  • Joshua R. Davis, Zachary Goldman, Jacob Hilty, Elizabeth N. Koch, David Liben-Nowell, Alexa Sharp, Tom Wexler, and Emma Zhou. Equilibria and Efficiency Loss in Games on Networks. SocialCom'09.
  • David Liben-Nowell and Jon Kleinberg. Tracing Information Flow on a Global Scale Using Internet Chain-Letter Data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(12):4633–4638, 25 March 2008. We remain very interested in gathering additional data about the spread of the chain-letter petitions described in this paper. Please visit http://petitions.cs.carleton.edu or http://petitions.cs.cornell.edu to learn more or to help.
  
  
• Complete list of publications by topic or by year.
  
  
• Current program committees: EC'10; WWW'10; M3SN'10 workshop on Modeling, Managing and Mining of Evolving Social Networks at ICDE'10.
• Program committees: EC'09; ADN'09; WWW'09; WAW'09; ADN'08; EC'08; WWW'08.

Advising:

• If you'd like me to write a letter of recommendation for you, please read and follow these instructions.
• If you're an outstanding math/science student interested in the Goldwater or the Churchill, please read the internal Carleton instructions (Churchill, Goldwater) and email for an appointment. For 2009–2010, Dean Ciner and I are sharing the advising role for both the Churchill and the Goldwater, so for some questions I may direct you to her.

FAQ:

• Q: Hey you! What should I call you?
  A: "David" will do quite nicely, thank you very much. "Dave" is a perfectly fine name, but Dave ain't me. (Thanks to Charles Leiserson for the FAQ idea.)
• Q: Hey you! I'd rather call you Professor/Doctor Liben-Nowell. How is that pronounced?
  A: It's pronounced many different ways, but the correct one rhymes with "ribbon towel."

Contact information: