Joe Bak-Coleman is a collective behavior scientist at the University of Washington and an applied external fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. He earned his PhD at Princeton and went on to complete postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Washington and the Columbia School of Journalism.
His research explores how the flow of information through groups impacts their ability to make decisions amidst uncertainty. Leveraging mathematical theory, statistical analysis, and experimental methods, he has studied collective behavior across diverse contexts; from zebra herds and fish schools to social media users and in scientific communities. In addition to his academic research, he has served as a consulting expert for the United Nations and has a forthcoming book, Of Fish and Fascists, due out in early 2027. His research and writing has appeared in Nature, PNAS, Science Advances, Wired, and Scientific American.
