Research

Mischa is an applied physicist whose research focuses on social network analysis (SNA) - a field not to be confused with social networks in the social media sense.

The aim of social network analysis is to understand a community by mapping the relationships that connect them as a network (often through the use of graph theory), and then trying to draw out key individuals, groups within the network (‘components’), and/or associations between the individuals. A network is simply a number of points (or ‘nodes’) that are connected by links. Generally, in social network analysis, the nodes are people, and the links are any social connection between them – for example, friendship, marital/family ties, financial ties^[1], disease transmission and sexual relationships^[2].

Social networks are both the cause of and the result of individual behavior^[3]. Social networks can provide both opportunities and limitations to the individuals within the network, while the individuals themselves are responsible for the relationships they build and break up that form the network. SNA can therefore be used to process a large amount of relational data and describe the overall relational network structure, or the analysis can focus on the more influential individuals or the outliers within the network. SNA developed as a branch of sociology in the early twentieth century and has its theoretical roots in the work of early sociologists such as Georg Simmel and Émile Durkheim. In the 1930s, Jacob Moreno and Helen Jennings introduced basic analytical methods. In 1954, John Arundel Barnes started using the term systematically to denote patterns of ties, encompassing concepts traditionally used by the public and those used by social scientists: bounded groups (e.g., tribes, families) and social categories (e.g., gender, ethnicity). Statistical mechanics concepts from physics were integrated into the field over the latter half of the twentieth century, making social network analysis a truly interdisciplinary area of research. Recent applications of SNA are wide-ranging from research on study abroad second language acquisition to countering money laundering and terrorism^[2].

Mischa is working on developing social network models both computationally and analytically – as well as through the use of empirical data – that simulate social communities, such as neighborhoods and workplaces, to study segregation dynamics in populations. She seeks to explore racial and gender segregation in society through this research.