What is a group? ft. Laurent Hébert-Dufresne

About this event

Join us for a special event on November 11th to celebrate Laurent Hébert-Dufresne’s global scholarship in 2026. This year, Dr. Hébert-Dufresne was recognized by the German Physical Society as the 2026 recipient of the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics , an international recognition for one scientist under the age of 40 for “outstanding original contributions that use physical methods to develop a better understanding of socio-economic problems”. He was also recognized by the Network Science Society with the 2026 Erdős–Rényi Prize by the Network Science Society (NetSci). Widely regarded as the field’s top honor for early-career researchers, the Erdős–Rényi Prize is awarded annually to a young scientist for “outstanding achievements in network science and contributions to the interdisciplinary development of the field.”

Dr. Hébert-Dufresne will give the lecture he presented at NetSci 2026:

“What is a Group”

So much of human life is shaped by our social groups and their respective norms. Groups drive how ideas or diseases spread; and determine which jokes or behaviors are accepted. For the last ten years, our research team has aimed to understand the structure of social groups, their impact on social dynamics, and their ability to make decisions in an increasingly complex world. This presentation will review this work and attempt to answer what is a group, define the space in which they exist, and offer new ways to study how groups impact our lives from disease dynamics to network governance.