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Europe’s First PhD Program in Network Science

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Network Science In Education

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Abstract

The new science of networks had reached such maturity by 2010 that the idea of launching a PhD program became natural. We at the Center for Network Science (CNS) of Central European University (CEU) had the vision of a truly interdisciplinary, problem-driven, and data-oriented program for students with diverse backgrounds. The program was launched in September 2015 and is the first of this kind in Europe. In this chapter we discuss the motivation, the scientific environment, and the curriculum for the new program. We strive to make our network science PhD program successful not despite but because of considerable student diversity. In our experience, the vital ingredients are a flexible curriculum with opportunities to equalize missing skills and a strong element of solidarity and mutual learning among students. We also report about the recruitment process and the first experience with two cohorts and the challenges we are facing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Networks occur in many PhD programs from abstract graph theory to engineering. An appealing aspect of the network science PhD program is that it gives a solid and broad basis in this subject together with a large variety of applications.

  2. 2.

    CEU has been under attack by the Hungarian government during the last months, which tried to hamstring the university by a new legislation [29]. This move has launched a wave of protests in Hungary and worldwide [30]. The Venice Commission is dealing with the Lex CEU [31], and the European Commission has started an infringement proceeding in this matter [32]. CEU is determined to continue its mission as a center of academic freedom, and its programs, including the PhD program in network science, will go on without any disruption [33].

  3. 3.

    For general ranking data, see [34] and for individual disciplines [35].

  4. 4.

    Partner institutes include the Network Science Institute (Northeastern University), Complexity Science Hub (Vienna), Institute for New Economic Thinking (INEC, Oxford University), Oxford Internet Institute (Oxford University), Department of Computer Science (Aalto University Finland), and Observatory of Complex Systems (University of Palermo). CEU has a formal partnership agreement with INEC, and we are planning such agreements with our most important partners.

  5. 5.

    A course credit equals a 50-min class per week for 12 weeks.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the fruitful collaboration on this program with our colleagues at CEU, especially with Albert-László Barabási, Rosario Mantegna, and Roberta Sinatra as well as the support of Guido Caldarelli, Zoltán Toroczkai, and Alessandro Vespignani during the accreditation process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

    János Kertész & Balázs Vedres

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  1. János Kertész
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  2. Balázs Vedres
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Data Science Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Catherine B. Cramer

  2. Department of Mathematics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Mason A. Porter

  3. Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY, USA

    Hiroki Sayama

  4. Center for Leadership and Diversity in STEM, Department of Mathematical Sciences, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, USA

    Lori Sheetz

  5. New York Hall of Science, Corona, NY, USA

    Stephen Miles Uzzo

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Kertész, J., Vedres, B. (2018). Europe’s First PhD Program in Network Science. In: Cramer, C., Porter, M., Sayama, H., Sheetz, L., Uzzo, S. (eds) Network Science In Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77237-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77237-0_6

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