Research Supervisor Connect
The project aims to develop a social network based model and operational constructs for exploring individual behaviour in relation to choice and personal health.
Professor Albert Y. Zomaya, Professor Mathew Vadas.
Charles Perkins Centre – the Judith and David Coffey Life Lab
Masters/PHD
Network effects on individual's behaviour have been documented in studies on communications, sociology and social psychology. Previous studies demonstrate that actors with a dense social networks can behave more optimally. Furthermore, actors who are rich in structural holes (connections to social clusters or groups who are themselves not well connected) are better situated in their social network to obtain, control and broker information. Task-oriented and sociological effects of information and communication technology use continue to be important in studies on individual behavior, including the choices individuals make in relation to their health. Research on direct interplay between social network structure, information and individual behaviour is, however, lacking to date. This project will study a wide range of biological and social networks with a view to understanding how network structure can be modified to improve desired outcomes.
The Life Lab creates a new kind of graduate and postgraduate training environment at the interface between life, social, economic and physical sciences. Its focus is to address the significant challenges we face from an unsustainable food system that degrades the environmental services it depends on, and creates significant societal health problems. A better understanding of the complexity of the environment-food-health nexus is critical. It is fundamental to building a sustainable society, and one that is more robust to future uncertainties. Our unique approach will be a world-first in shifting research on these growing challenges from treating symptoms to prevention.Life Lab will challenge existing paradigms and university models to create a research training environment in which traditional disciplinary boundaries do not apply. Our ambitious vision is to create an ‘innovation hub' where researchers from disciplines spanning physical, life and social and economic sciences will interface with business, government and agency leaders. It will develop integrated approaches to the challenges that threaten societal wellbeing, and train the next generation of experts with the skills required to find solutions.
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 1689