Artificial intelligence and data analysis are top of mind for Yale data scientist Johan Ugander, who studies social networks and individual behavior through innovative statistical and algorithmic methods — but this summer, he’s also made time for the ancient Greeks.
Ugander is an associate professor of statistics and data science in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, deputy director of the Yale Institute for Foundations of Data Science, and a faculty fellow at the Center for Algorithms, Data, and Market Design at Yale.
Johan Ugander
Is there anything you’re reading for your area of expertise?
Johan Ugander: I recently finished and very much enjoyed both “How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms,” by Chris Wiggins and Matthew Jones, as well as “More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity,” by Adam Becker, who gave a great talk at Yale this past spring. I just started Ben Recht’s “The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us,” and am enjoying it so far.
What’s the last great book you read?
Ugander: I recently finished reading the Emily Wilson translation of “The Odyssey” aloud to my 9-year-old daughter. I’d last read it in college and wanted to re-read it before watching the new Christopher Nolan film. The story read very differently to me now than it did in college. I experienced Odysseus’ conversation with the dead in the underworld very differently, having a different relationship to grief and death than I did in my twenties.
Do you have a favorite book that you wish more people had read?
Ugander: I’ve been recommending “Breaking Ranks: How the Rankings Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do about It,” by Colin Diver, to many colleagues. I read it last year and it changed how I think about many aspects of higher education. I wish more academics had read it.
