Professor Noshir Contractor received his PhD from the University of Southern California in Communication and is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences. He holds appointments in the Departments of Communication Studies, Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences, and Management & Organizations. Contractor teaches Understanding & Leveraging Networks in the MSC curriculum. His research includes investigating factors that lead to the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked social and knowledge networks in communities. Contractor directs the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) laboratory where his research team is developing and testing theories and methods of network science.