Academic Clusters

Through faculty collaboration and targeted hiring, academic clusters provide the critical mass and spectrum of expertise necessary to shape and advance the understanding of complex problems, emerging issues, and future societal challenges. By bringing together diverse and multi-disciplinary faculty teams, these cohorts of scholars focus on new intellectual themes and questions that cut across disciplines, departments, and schools.

Professor Jacque Wernimont speaks with a students. — Jacqueline Wernimont, Distinguished Chair of the Digital Humanities and Social Engagement cluster speaks with a student in the Social Justice Lab.

Breaking the Neural Code

Arts & Sciences | Geisel

The Breaking the Neural Code Cluster advances understanding of how the mind is encoded in patterns of activity among billions of cells, leading to the neurological equivalent of decoding the human genome.

Faculty

Tor Wager
Diana L. Taylor 1977 Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience
Director of the Brain Imaging Center
John D. Murray
Gregg L. Engles 1979 Professorship
Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences

The Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization

Arts & Sciences | Tuck

The Globalization Cluster represents one of the largest groups of scholars anywhere devoted to the study of globalization, a force with unprecedented growth in the cross-border movement of ideas, capital, products, and people. Globalization has created opportunities for billions of people while simultaneously threatening economic, political, and social systems.

Faculty

Treb Allen
Distinguished Professor of Economics and Globalization
Davin Chor
Associate Professor of Business Administration; Harvey H. Bundy III T'68 Faculty Fellow
Yang-Yang Zhou
Assistant Professor of Government

Changing Polar Regions

Arts & Sciences | Thayer

Capitalizing on Dartmouth's strengths in engineering and polar studies, the Changing Polar Regions focuses on the complex societal and environmental impacts of climate change and increased energy production in Arctic regions and beyond. This cluster will capitalize on Dartmouth's interdisciplinary approach to study the science and engineering of shifting polar environments.

Faculty

Mathieu Morlighem
Evans Family Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences
Colin Meyer
Assistant Professor of Engineering; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences
Yoshihiro Nakayama
Assistant Professor of Engineering

Digital Humanities and Social Engagement

Arts & Sciences

The digital humanities at Dartmouth delve into the complex social and ethical dimensions of digital technologies, exploring questions that address the digital class divide and the definition of "human" in an age of implantable and wearable computer devices. The Cluster is breaking barriers between disciplines and furthering fundamental work in social justice.

Faculty

Jacque Wernimont
Distinguished Chair, Digital Humanities and Social Engagement; Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Film and Media Studies
Alison Martin
Assistant Professor of Music
Roopika Risam
Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies and Comparative Literature

Improving Healthcare Outcomes through Sensory Technology

Arts & Sciences | Geisel | Thayer | Tuck

The cluster will explore the development of technologies that foster improved care, empowering patients with personalized health insights and interventions, and enabling caregivers from the family to the clinician to provide better support for the patient.

Tam Vu
Thomas A. and Georgina Tugwell Russo 1977 Distinguished Professor
Professor of Computer Science

The Jack Byrne Academic Cluster in Mathematics and Decision Science

Arts & Sciences | Thayer | Tuck

Dartmouth is working at the forefront of new mathematical models to address a spectrum of real-world challenges—in health, science, engineering, public policy, and business. The Byrne Cluster seeks to bring international recognition to Dartmouth by building on existing strengths in decision-making through applied mathematics, creating a critical mass of academic excellence in the Department of Mathematics, Tuck and Thayer, and deepening collaboration across schools.

Faculty

Peter Mucha
Jack Byrne Distinguished Professor in Mathematics
Jim Smith
Jack Byrne Distinguished Professor in Decision Science
Dimitrios Giannakis
Jack Byrne Professor in Mathematics

Meeting New Challenges of Cybersecurity

Arts & Sciences

Cybersecurity spans a vast sweep of territory. Everything from software programs to networks, medical devices, utilities, and vehicles can—and will be—hacked. Responding to global cybersecurity challenges requires rigorous research and analysis. Dartmouth is uniquely positioned to lead in this arena through its deep expertise in the fields of computer science, engineering, government, neuroscience, and sociology.

Faculty

Sergey Bratus
The Dartmouth College Distinguished Professor in Cyber Security, Technology, and Society
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Adam Breuer
The Dartmouth College Professor in Cyber Security, Technology, and Society
Assistant Professor of Government and of Computer Science
Christophe Hauser
Speers Family Professor
Assistant Professor of Computer Science

The Philip Hanlon and Gail Gentes Cluster for Personalized Treatments for Cystic Fibrosis

Arts & Sciences | Geisel

With the establishment of the Philip Hanlon and Gail Gentes Cluster for Personalized Treatments for Cystic Fibrosis, Dartmouth is leading the way in discovering and developing personalized medicine and treatments for cystic fibrosis and other fungal and bacterial lung infections. Cluster faculty and researchers are committed to developing more effective therapeutic strategies that will be made possible by breakthroughs in alleviating bacterial infections, microbiota dysbiosis, and generic errors in cystic fibrosis.

Faculty

James Bliska
Philip J. Hanlon Third Century Distinguished Professor in Personalized Treatments for Cystic Fibrosis
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Ben Ross
Philip J. Hanlon First Century Professor in Personalized Treatments for Cystic Fibrosis
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics
Jennifer Bomberger
Philip J. Hanlon Second Century Professor in Personalized Treatments for Cystic Fibrosis
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

DartCF Website

The Susan J. and Richard M. Levy 1960 Academic Cluster in Healthcare Delivery

Geisel | TDI

The Susan J. and Richard M. Levy 1960 Academic Cluster in Health Care Delivery is focused on providing transformational redesign of health care services by creating more efficient, effective, and sustainable systems. World-class faculty are collaborating on policy and health system solutions in economics, housing, health equity, incentive design and pricing. This multidisciplinary approach will deepen the partnership with Dartmouth Health and align health entities across The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice (TDI), Geisel, Tuck, Thayer, and Arts & Sciences.

Carrie Colla
The Susan J. and Richard M. Levy 1960 Distinguished Professor, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice
Emma Dean
Assistant Professor, The Dartmouth Institue for Health Policy & Clinical Practice
Johnny Huynh
Assistant Professor, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice

The William H. Neukom 1964 Academic Cluster in Computational Science

Arts & Sciences | Geisel | Thayer

Computational methods and tools are fundamental to scholarly endeavor—and they are enabling researchers in the Neukom Cluster, in collaboration with the Neukom Institute and colleagues across Dartmouth, to push the boundaries in the fields of physical and life sciences, engineering, and medicine.

Faculty

Rahul Sarpeshkar
Thomas E. Kurtz Distinguished Professor; Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Physics, and Molecular and Systems Biology
Daniel Schultz
John G. Kemeny Professorship
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Paul Robustelli
James O. Freedman Professorship
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Cell Biology

Rahul Sarpeshkar, Thomas E. Kurtz Professor, Professor of Engineering, Physics, Microbiology & Immunology; and Molecular & Systems Biology, of the William H. Neukom Academic Cluster in Computational Science.
Allie Martin, Assistant Professor of Music, of the Digital Humanities and Social Engagement academic cluster.
Tor Wager, Diana L. Taylor Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience and Director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience lab, leads Dartmouth's Breaking the Neural Code academic cluster.
James Bliska (second from right), holder of the Philip J. Hanlon Third Century Distinguished Professorship in Personalized Treatments for Cystic Fibrosis, in the Bliska Laboratory at the Geisel School of Medicine.