100 word bio
Michael Szell is currently postdoctoral fellow at MIT (Senseable City Laboratory). His interdisciplinary background of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics is well reflected in his research goals: To quantitatively understand collective behavior and the underlying patterns of our interlinked actions and decisions in a new kind of "computational social science", which typically involves mining large-scale data sets of human activity following a complex networks/systems approach. Michael's special focus is on online environments and media, in particular he is known for his work on multiplex networks, social dynamics and mobility from the players in his massive multiplayer online game "Pardus", www.pardus.at.
Research interests
- Analysis, modeling of structure, evolution, and processes on social networks
- Data mining and statistical physics of societies, particularly in online games and cities
- Quantification of human behavior, behavioral economics, evolutionary game theory
Education
| 2012 / 03 |  | Ph.D. in Physics, University of Vienna Ph.D. Thesis
Advisors: Stefan Thurner, Christoph Dellago |
| 2007 / 10 |  | M.Sc. in Technical Mathematics with focus on computer science, Vienna University of Technology M.Sc. Thesis |
Employment
| present 2012 / 04 |  | Postdoctoral research fellow, Senseable City Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 2011 / 12 2009 / 01 |  | Research assistant, Section for Science of Complex Systems, Medical University of Vienna |
| present 2006 / 09 | Founder and manager of Bayer & Szell OG | |
| present 2004 / 07 |  | Developer and administrator of the Massive Multiplayer Online Game Pardus |
Hobbies
- Badminton, Squash, Tennis
- Playing the piano
- Programming, web development
- Hiking, cycling