John P. Boyd

Picture of John P. Boyd
Professor, Anthropology
School of Social Sciences
PH.D., University of Michigan, 1967
Phone: (949) 824-5427, 6336
Fax: (949) 824-4717
Email: jpboyd@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
3139 Social Sciences Plaza A
Mail Code: 5100
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Kinship, social networks, mathematical anthropology
Academic Distinctions
Appointments
Research Abstract
I am interested in mathematical models of social behavior, ranging from kinship systems to informal social networks. The methodological questions raised by these endeavors have lead me to use probabilistic methods (simulated annealing) to fit structures such as discrete semigroups to network data. Other areas of interest to me include sociobiology, neural networks, chaos theory, and C++ programming. What ties all these areas together, at least in my mind, is the emergence of complex structures arising from simple interaction rules.
Publications
Social Semigroups, George Mason University Press, 1991.
Last updated
03/15/2002