James H. Fowler, PhD

Research Interests

Dr. Fowler is a Professor in the School of Medicine and the Division of Social Sciences and an Affiliate at the Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems at CALIT2. Dr. Fowler received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 2003 and since then has focused intensively on social networks, health, and the biological basis of behavior. In particular, he is a leader in the new field of 'genopolitics' (the study of the genetic basis of political behavior).

Dr. Fowler's research has appeared in Nature, Science, PNAS, the New England Journal of Medicine, British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, and a wide range of specialty natural and social science journals. This research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, James S. McDonnell Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Together with Nicholas Christakis, Dr. Fowler has written a book for a general audience called Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. It has been translated into nearly twenty languages, has won a Books for a Better Life Award, was named an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review, and was featured in Wired, Oprah’s Fall Reading Guide, Business Week’s Top Books of the Year, and a cover story in New York Times Magazine.

Education

2003 - Ph.D., (Government), Harvard University
2001 - M.A., (Government), Harvard University
1997 - M.A., (International Relations), Yale University
1992 - B.A., cum laude (Government), Harvard University

Employment

2010 - : Professor, Medical Genetics Division, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA
2010 - : Professor, Political Science Department, Division of Social Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA
2009 - : Affiliate, Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems, CALIT2, University of California, San Diego, CA
2006 - 2010: Associate Professor, Political Science Department, Division of Social Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA
2003 - 2006: Assistant Professor, Political Science Department, Division of Social Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA

Honors & Awards

2010–2011: Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
2010: Emerging Scholar Award, American Political Science Association
2009: Harvard Business Review Breakthrough Ideas of the Year
2008: Time Magazine Year in Medicine
2008: New York Times Magazine Year in Ideas
2008: The McLaughlin Group's "most original thinker of the year"
2007: Time Magazine Year in Medicine

Publications (selected)

Rosenquist JN, Murabito J, Fowler JH, Christakis NA. The Spread of Alcohol Consumption Behavior in a Large Social Network, Annals of Internal Medicine 152 (7): 426–433 (6 April 2010) PMID: 20368648
Fowler JH, Christakis NA. Cooperative Behavior Cascades in Human Social Networks, PNAS 107 (12): 5334–5338 (23 March 2010) PMCID: PMC2851803
Lazer D, Pentland A, Adamic L, Aral S, Barabasi A-L, Brewer D, Christakis NA, Contractor N, Fowler JH, Gutmann M, Jebara A, King G, Macy M, Roy D, Van Alstyne M. Computational Social Science, Science 323 (5919): 721–723 (6 February 2009)
Fowler JH, Christakis NA. The Dynamic Spread of Happiness in a Large Social Network, British Medical Journal 337: a2338 (4 December 2008) PMCID: PMC2600606
Fowler JH, Schreiber D. Biology, Politics, and the Emerging Science of Human Nature, Science 322 (5903): 912–914 (7 November 2008) PMID: 18988845
Christakis NA, Fowler JH. The Collective Dynamics of Smoking in a Large Social Network, New England Journal of Medicine 358 (21): 2249–58 (22 May 2008) PMCID: PMC2822344
Christakis NA, Fowler JH. The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network Over 32 Years, New England Journal of Medicine 357 (4): 370–379 (26 July 2007) PMID: 17652652
Dawes CT, Fowler JH, Johnson T, McElreath RM, Smirnov O. Egalitarian Motives in Humans, Nature 446: 794–796 (12 April 2007) PMID: 17429399