PhD Defence: Wouter Vermeer
In his dissertation ‘Propagation in Networks: The impact of information processing at the actor level on system-wide propagation dynamics’ ERIM’s Wouter Vermeer addresses the analysis of system-wide dynamics of propagation in networks. In order to understand such system-wide dynamics of propagation, an emphasis should be placed on the critical mechanism by which propagation takes place between actors on a micro level. This thesis puts forward the information processing view of propagation, a framework in which describes this mechanism using three distinct sub-processes of propagation; Radiation, Transmission and Reception.
Wouter defended his dissertation in the Senate Hall at Erasmus University Rotterdam on Thursday, 17 December 2015 at 11:30. His supervisor were Prof.mr.dr. P.H.M. Vervest and Dr.ir. O.R. Koppius. Other members of the Doctoral Committee were Prof.dr. H.W.G.M. van Heck (RSM), Prof.dr. W. Rand, and Prof.dr. K. Frenken (Universiteit Utrecht).
About Wouter Vermeer
Wilhelmus Hubertus (Wouter) Vermeer was born on August 29 1984 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He has studied at the Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University, where he first has obtained a B.Sc. in Business Administration. Following he has obtained a M.Sc in Business administration focusing on Business Information Management (BIM), which he completed in 2009. After graduating he worked for one year as a research assistant associated with the New Worlds of Work (NWoW) research project, which that year received the `ERIM impact award'.
In 2010, Wouter started his Ph.D. at the department Decision and Information Sciences at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. In 2014, he spend four months as a visiting scholar at the Robert H. Smith School of Business in the University of Maryland. His research interests include network science, diffusion of information, agent-based Modeling and complexity. His research has been linked to the multi-disciplinary complexity group set up by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). He has presented his work at various international conferences including the Workshop on Information in Networks, Workshop on Complex Networks, Conference for complexity in Business, International conference on Network Science and the international conference of the network of social network analysis.
Apart from his research activities Wouter has served as a PhD representative at the daily board in his department, and has been heavily involved in teaching. For 6 years he has been involved in the master elective course `Smart Business Networks' of which the last two years he has been the sole teacher.\\Currently, Wouter holds a position as post-doctoral research fellow associated with the Center for Connected Learning (CCL), the Center for Prevention and Implementation and Methodology (Ce-PIM) and the Northwestern Institute for Complexity (NICO) at Northwestern University
Thesis Abstract
Propagation in Networks
This thesis addresses the analysis of system-wide dynamics of propagation in networks. In order to understand such system-wide dynamics of propagation, an emphasis should be placed on the critical mechanism by which propagation takes place between actors on a micro level. This thesis puts forward the information processing view of propagation, a framework in which describes this mechanism using three distinct sub-processes of propagation; Radiation, Transmission and Reception. Decomposing the propagation mechanism into these three sub-processes yields a more detailed and methodologically stronger model of propagation, the RTR-model of propagation, which is better suited for capturing the complexity of the propagation processes in practice. Agent-based simulations adopting this model show that distinguishing the three sub-processes of propagation is critical in order to: 1) understand the effects of interventions in the propagation process, 2) incorporate the heterogeneous behavior of actors, and 3) understand the role of network structure in propagation.
· View and download Wouter's dissertation
Photos: Chris Gorzeman / Capital Images
