Chris Danforth

Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics

Co-Director, Computational Story Lab

Associate Director, Vermont Complex Systems Center

Director, Vermont Advanced Computing Center

University of Vermont

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Research

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Lived Experiences Measured Using Rings Study (LEMURS)

Science of Online Corpora, Knowledge, and Stories (SOCKS)

Recent funding from NSF for science, MRI for GPUs and RAM, & MassMutual

“Inside the lab that’s quantifying happiness”
Profile of our research group in Outside Magazine

Research team & group publications

"The essence of meaning aligns with a power-danger-structure framework" paper in Science Advances & press release

"The war in Ukraine has made Russian social-media users glum" The Economist

“Is Everybody Doing … OK? Let’s Ask Social Media”
Story on Hedonometer in New York Times

“Has Twitter just had its saddest fortnight ever?”
Story on Hedonometer in Nature

"Storywrangler: A massive exploratorium for sociolinguistic, cultural, socioeconomic, and political timelines using Twitter" Paper in Science Advances

“Instagram photos reveal predictive markers of depression”
Paper in EPJ Data Science, coverage by New York Times

“The emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes” Paper in EPJ Data Science, coverage by The Atlantic

“Human language reveals a universal positivity bias”
Paper in PNAS, coverage by New York Times

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Hedonometer: a population scale measure of daily happiness

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StoryWrangler: A visual comparison of phrase popularity in 150 billion tweets

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WikiWrangler: Measuring Global Collective Attention on Wikipedia

Recent Publications

  • 145. False memories to fake news: The evolution of the term "misinformation" in academic literature.
    A. J. R. Iglesias, D. Benett, J. W. Zimmerman, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 144. Archetypes and gender in fiction: A data-driven mapping of gender stereotypes in stories.
    C. G. Beauregard, J. W. Zimmerman, A. M. Fehr, T. R. Tangherlini, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 143. Sensitivity analysis of epidemic forecasting and spreading on networks with probability generating functions.
    M. C. Boudreau, W. H. W. Thompson, C. M. Danforth, J.-G. Young, L. Hébert-Dufresne
    Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
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  • 142. Statistical laws and linguistics inform meaning in naturalistic and fictional conversation.
    A. M. A. Fehr, C. G. Beauregard, J. W. Zimmerman, K. Ekstrom, P. Rosillo-Rodes, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 141. Tokens, the oft-overlooked appetizer: Large language models, the distributional hypothesis, and meaning.
    J. W. Zimmerman, D. Hudon, K. Cramer, A. J. Ruiz, C. Beauregard, A. Fehr, M. I. Fudolig, B. Demarest, Y. M. Bird, M. Z. Trujillo, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 140. Global brain drain and gain in high-potential student mobility.
    T. T. Prama, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 139. Story and essential meaning dynamics in Bangladesh’s July 2024 Student-People’s Uprising.
    T. T. Prama, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 138. Us-vs-Them bias in Large Language Models.
    T. T. Prama, J. W. Zimmerman. C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 137. Misalignment of LLM-Generated Personas with Human Perceptions in Low-Resource Settings.
    T. T. Prama, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 136. Detecting sub-populations in online health communities: A mixed-methods exploration of breastfeeding messages in BabyCenter Birth Clubs.
    C. Beauregard, P. Suchdev, A. M. A. Fehr, I. T. Smith, T. T. Prama, J. W. Zimmerman, C. Ward, J. Lovato, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 135. Ousiometrics: Essential meaning aligns with a
    Power–Danger–Structure framework instead of Valence–Arousal–Dominance, and diverse
    corpora reveal a universal safety bias.
    P. S. Dodds, T. Alshaabi, M. I. Fudolig, J. W. Zimmerman, J. Lovato, S. Beaulieu, J. R. Minot, M. V. Arnold, A. J. Reagan, C. M. Danforth.
    Science Advances. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url] [online appendix] [thread] [press]
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  • 134. Taste for Privacy: How Context, Identity, and Lived-Experience Shape Information Sharing Preferences.
    J. Lovato, L. Hébert-Dufresne, M. Ghasemizade, J. St-Onge, P. S. Dodds, L. S. P. Bloomfield, M. I. Fudolig, M. Price, C. M. Danforth.
    ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT). In Press. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 133. Exploration of wearable sensor measures associated with panic attacks differs across mental health conditions.
    D. D. Kairamkonda, E. W. McGinnis, M. Price, J. E. Hidalgo, J. Kim, J. Llorin, K. Stanton, L. S. P. Bloomfield, M. I. Fudolig, J. Ha, N. Noble, J. Cherian, G. Mascia, N. S. O'Connell, J. Fanning, P. S. Dodds, C. M. Danforth, R. S. McGinnis.
    Frontiers in Digital Health. 2026.
    [pdf] [journal url]
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  • 132. Personalized Machine Learning Models for Predicting Panic Attacks.
    D. D. Kairamkonda, E. W. McGinnis, J. Cherian, G. Mascia, M. Price, J. E. Hidalgo, J. Kim, J. Llorin, K. Stanton, J. Ha, P. S. Dodds, C. M. Danforth, R. S. McGinnis.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 131. Aim High, Stay Private: Differentially Private Synthetic Data Enables Public Release of Behavioral Health Information with High Utility.
    M. Ghasemizade, J. Lovato, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds, L. S. P. Bloomfield, M. Price, Team LEMURS, J. P. Near.
    Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) Open. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url] [code]
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  • 130. Identifying Body Composition Measures That Correlate with Self-Compassion and Social Support.
    E. Poon, M. I. Fudolig, J. E. Hidalgo, B. C. Loftness, K. Stanton, C. L. Tompkins, L. S. P. Bloomfield, M. Price, P. S. Dodds, C. M. Danforth, N. Cheney.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 129 Spatial Patterns and Temporal Trends of Nature Exposure in a College Student Cohort.
    L. S. P. Bloomfield, S. Lombardo, M. Price, T. H. Ricketts, C. M. Danforth.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 128. Perceived and quantified nature exposure in relation to mental health.
    L. S. P. Bloomfield, S. Lombardo, M. Price, T. H. Ricketts, C. M. Danforth.
    Health & Place. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
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  • 127. Effects of behavioral interventions on psychological and biometric measures of well-being in young adults: results of a 14-week, four-arm, randomized, controlled trial.
    L. S. P. Bloomfield, M. I. Fudolig, J. Kim, J. Llorin, J. L. Lovato, E. W. McGinnis, R. S. McGinnis, M. Price, T. H. Ricketts, P. S. Dodds, K. Stanton, C. M. Danforth.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 126. Discovering Digital Biomarkers of Panic Attack Risk in Consumer Wearables Data.
    E. W. McGinnis, S. Lunna, I. Berman, B. Loftness, S. Bagdon, C. M. Danforth, M. Price, W. E. Copeland, R. S. McGinnis.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 125. Objective Physical Activity Patterns Of College Students Throughout The Academic Year.
    C. L. Tompkins, M. Price, J. E. Hidalgo, N. Noble, J. Ha, L. S. P. Bloomfield, P. S. Dodds, M. I. Fudolig, M. Hickok, J. Kim, J. Llorin, J. Lovato, E. W. McGinnis, R. S. McGinnis, K. Stanton, T. H. Ricketts, C. M. Danforth.
    Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2025.
    [journal url]
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  • 124. Collective sleep and activity patterns of college students from wearable devices.
    M. I. Fudolig, L. S. P. Bloomfield, M. Price, Y. M. Bird, J. E. Hidalgo, J. Kim, J. Llorin, J. L. Lovato, E. W. McGinnis, R. S. McGinnis, T. H. Ricketts, K. Stanton, P. S. Dodds, C. M. Danforth.
    npj Complexity. 2025.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
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  • 123. Hollywood’s misrepresentation of death: A comparison of overall and by-gender mortality causes in film and the real world.
    C. Beauregard, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Formative Research. 2025.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
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  • 122. LLMs for Low-Resource Dialect Translation Using Context-Aware Prompting: A Case Study on Sylheti.
    T. T. Prama, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Bangla Language Processing. 2025.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
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  • 121. BanglaMATH: A Bangla benchmark dataset for testing LLM mathematical reasoning at grades 6, 7, and 8.
    T. T. Prama, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    Proceedings of The 3rd Workshop on Mathematical Natural Language Processing (MathNLP 2025). 2025.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
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  • 120. HateSense: A Multi-Task Learning Framework for Comprehensive Hate Speech Identification using LLMs.
    T. T. Prama, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Bangla Language Processing. 2025.
    [pdf] [journal url]
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  • 119. An assessment of measuring local levels of homelessness through proxy social media signals.
    Y. M. Bird, S. E. Grobe, M. V. Arnold, S. P. Rogers, M. I. Fudolig, J. W. Zimmerman, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    International Journal on Homelessness. 2025.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url] [thread] [press]
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  • 118. A quantitative analysis of the affirmative furtherance of fair housing in the Housing Choice Voucher program.
    Y. M. Bird, A. Fehr, J. W. Zimmerman, M. I. Fudolig, S. E. Grobe, M. V. Arnold, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    arXiv.org 2025.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
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  • 117. A suite of allotaxonometric tools for the comparison of complex systems using rank-turbulence divergence.
    J. St-Onge, A. M. A. Fehr, C. Ward, C. G. Beauregard, M. V. Arnold, S. F. Rosenblatt, B. Cooley, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds
    arXiv.org 2025.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [online appendix]
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  • 116. Archetypometrics, a Pragmateia: Empirical Determination of the Fundamental Archetypes of Fictional Characters.
    P. S. Dodds, J. W. Zimmerman, C. G. Beauregard, A. M. Fehr, M. Fudolig, T. Tangherlini, C. M. Danforth.
    arXiv.org 2025.
    [pdf (1.6GB)] [arXiv]
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  • 115. A blind spot for large language models: Supradiegetic linguistic information.
    J. W. Zimmerman, D. Hudon, K. Cramer, J. St. Onge, M. Fudolig, M. V. Arnold, M. Z. Trujillo, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    Plutonics. 2024.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
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Full publication list

Teaching

Video lectures for recent course on Nonlinear Dynamics available for free on YouTube

2022 Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award

Applied Mathematics classes taught at UVM include Linear Algebra, Numerical Analysis, Nonlinear Dynamics, Ordinary Differential Equations, and Data Ethics

We now offer an undergraduate degree in Data Science, as well as both MS and PhD degrees in Complex Systems & Data Science

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