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

Stacks Image 414798_414995
Stacks Image 414981
Stacks Image 414983
Stacks Image 415013
Stacks Image 415038
Stacks Image 415045
Stacks Image 415031

Research

Stacks Image 499349

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 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

Stacks Image 499462

Hedonometer: a population scale measure of daily happiness

Stacks Image 500327

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

Recent Publications

  • 141. 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]
    Stacks Image 505858
  • 140. 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]
    Stacks Image 505867
  • 139. 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]
    Stacks Image 505876
  • 138. 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]
    Stacks Image 505885
  • 137. 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]
    Stacks Image 505894
  • 136. 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]
    Stacks Image 505903
  • 135. 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]
    Stacks Image 505912
  • 134. 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]
    Stacks Image 505921
  • 133. 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]
    Stacks Image 505930
  • 132. 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. In Press. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [online appendix] [thread]
    Stacks Image 505620
  • 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.
    In Review. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
    Stacks Image 505629
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505638
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505647
  • 128. Not All Nature Exposure Is Equal: Perceived Nature Engagement Predicts Mental Health Better Than Quantified Nature.
    L. S. P. Bloomfield, S. Lombardo, M. Price, T. H. Ricketts, C. M. Danforth.
    Health & Place. In Press. 2026.
    [pdf] [arXiv]
    Stacks Image 505656
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505665
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505674
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505683
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505939
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505692
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505701
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505710
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505719
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505728
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505737
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505746
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505755
  • 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]
    Stacks Image 505764
  • 114. Expecting the Unexpected: Predicting Panic Attacks from Mood, Twitter, and Apple Watch Data.
    E. W. McGinnis, S. Lunna, I. Berman, S. Bagdon, G. Lewis, M. V. Arnold, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds, M. Price, W. E. Copeland, R. S. McGinnis.
    IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology. 2024.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url] [press] [thread]
    Stacks Image 505775
  • 113. Meeting people where they are: Crowdsourcing goal-specific personalized wellness practices.
    J. E. Hidalgo, J. Kim, J. Llorin, K. Stanton, J. Cherian, L. Bloomfield, M. Fudolig, M. Price, J. Ha, N. Noble, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds, J. Fanning, R. S. McGinnis, E. W. McGinnis.
    PLOS Digital Health. 2024.
    [pdf] [journal url]
    Stacks Image 505784
  • 112. Predicting stress in college freshmen using sleep data from wearable devices.
    L. S. P. Bloomfield, M. I. Fudolig, P. S. Dodds, J. Llorin, J. L. Lovato, J. Kim, E. W. McGinnis, R. S. McGinnis, M. Price, T. H. Ricketts, K. Stanton, C. M. Danforth.
    PLOS Digital Health. 2024.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url] [press]
    Stacks Image 505793
  • 111. Predictors of Anxiety Trajectories in First-year College Students.
    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.
    Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Open (JAACAP Open). 2024.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
    Stacks Image 505802
  • 110. The two fundamental shapes of sleep heart rate dynamics and their connection to mental health in college students.
    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.
    Digital Biomarkers. 2024.
    [pdf] [arXiv] [journal url]
    Stacks Image 505811
  • 109. A Large Clinical Trial to Measure Well-Being During the Transition to College Using Wearables: The Lived Experiences Measured Using Rings Study.
    M. Price, J. E. Hidalgo, Y. Bird, L. S. P. Bloomfield, C. Buck, J. Cerutti, P. S. Dodds, M. I. Fudolig, R. Gehman, M. Hickok, J. Kim, J. Llorin, J. Lovato, E. McGinnis, R. S. McGinnis, R. Norton, V. Ramirez, K. Stanton, T. H. Ricketts, C. M. Danforth.
    Contemporary Clinical Trials. 2023.
    [pdf] [journal url] [press]
    Stacks Image 505820
  • 108. A decomposition of book structure through ousiometric fluctuations in cumulative word-time.
    M. Fudolig, T. Alshaabi, K. Cramer, C. M. Danforth, P. S. Dodds.
    Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 2023.
    [pdf] [journal url] [arxiv] [thread]
    Stacks Image 505829
  • 107. Nature Exposure is Associated With Reduced Smartphone Use.
    K. Minor, K. L. Glavind, A. J. Schwartz, C. M. Danforth, S. Lehmann, A. Bjerre-Nielsen.
    Environment and Behavior. 2023.
    [pdf] [journal url] [thread] [press]
    Stacks Image 505838
  • 106. Say Their Names: Resurgence in the collective attention toward Black victims of fatal police violence following the death of George Floyd.
    H. H. Wu, R. J. Gallagher, T. Alshaabi, J. L. Adams, J. R. Minot, M. V. Arnold, B. F. Welles, R. Harp, P. S. Dodds, C. M. Danforth.
    PLOS ONE. 2023.
    [pdf] [journal url] [arXiv] [thread]
    Stacks Image 505847

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

Stacks Image 499363

Tweets