From the molecules that serve as the building blocks of life to the social media we use, almost every part of our lives is part of a network.
Hundreds of scientists who have dedicated their careers to studying these networks are gathering this week in Boston for NetSci, the flagship network science conference hosted by Northeastern University this year. The field, with its connections to pandemic forecasting and artificial intelligence, has quickly become one of the hottest topics in academia and beyond. But it wasn’t always that way.
Albert-László Barabási and Réka Albert, two of network science’s founders, know that better than most. During a keynote speech at NetSci 2026, the two traced a path from the field’s origins, their seminal research that established the foundations of network science and the growing importance of the field in the world today.
Read more at Northeastern Global News
