Research Interests
Applied Mathematics Applied Statistics Artificial Intelligence Computational Linguistics Computer Communications Networks Computer-Human Interaction Information and Computing Sciences Knowledge Representation and Machine Learning Mathematical Sciences Networking & Telecommunications Networking and Communications Neural, Evolutionary and Fuzzy Computation Neurocognitive Patterns and Neural Networks Numerical and Computational Mathematics Numerical Computation Pattern Recognition and Data Mining Simulation and Modelling Social Sciences Methods Stochastic Analysis and ModellingProf Lewis Mitchell
Professor
School of Mathematical Sciences
College of Science
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
My Homepage
I'm a Professor of Data Science at the University of Adelaide. I study how information moves over social networks using mathematical models, coupled with data science techniques. My research interests are in computational social science, human dynamics, online social networks, as well as data assimilation and the mathematics of weather and climate. Please consult my homepage for further information.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 - ongoing | Lecturer->Professor of Data Science | University of Adelaide |
| 2011 - 2014 | Ed Lorenz postdoctoral fellow in the mathematics of climate | University of Vermont |
| Date | Type | Title | Institution Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Award | JH Michell Medal for outstanding new researchers | ANZIAM | Australia | - |
| 2018 | Award | ACEMS Recognition for Outstanding Participation in Outreach Award | ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) | Australia | 1000 |
| 2018 | Award | ACEMS Outstanding Achievements Recognition Award | ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers | Australia | 1000 |
| 2018 | Award | SA Young Tall Poppy Award | Australian Institute of Policy & Science | Australia | - |
| 2017 | Teaching Award | ECMS Faculty Teaching Award (Continuing) | University of Adelaide | Australia | 2000 |
| 2017 | Honour | Fresh Science SA Finallist | - | - | - |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 - 2012 | University of Sydney | Australia | PhD |
| 2003 - 2007 | University of Wollongong | Australia | BMath (Hons) (Adv) / BSc (Physics) (Adv) |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Farina, M., Semmler, C., & Mitchell, L. (2025). Cambridge Analytica's Capability for Influence: Is Manipulation Merely Big Data, Psychological Profiles and Personalised Ads ?. In M. -E. Dowling (Ed.), Digital (Dis)Information Operations Fooling: the Five Eyes (pp. 47-60). Routledge. DOI |
| 2017 | Mitchell, L. (2017). How the internet knows if you’re happy or sad. In J. Watson (Ed.), The Conversation Yearbook 2017: standout articles from Australia's top thinkers. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Mitchell, L. (2019). The Hedonometer exhibit (HEDONISM exhibition, MOD) (No. Of Pieces: 5 months) [Exhibition]. MOD (Museum of Discovery), Adelaide. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2014 | Frank, M. R., Williams, J. R., Mitchell, L., Bagrow, J. P., Dodds, P. S., & Danforth, C. M. (2014). Constructing a taxonomy of fine-grained human movement and activity motifs through social media. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Mitchell, L. (2017). Explainer: how the internet knows if you’re happy or sad. The Conversation. |
| 2016 | McVernon, J., Ross, J. V., Glass, K., Mitchell, L., Geard, N., & Moss, R. (2016). Computing helps the study of infections on a global and local scale. |
| 2016 | Mitchell, L. (2016). How Twitter gives scientists a window into human happiness and health. The Conversation. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Kalenkova, A., Mitchell, L., & Johnson, E. (2025). Discovering Coordinated Processes From Social Online Networks. |
| 2025 | Bala, I., Mitchell, L., & Gillam, M. (2025). Analysis of Voluntarily Reported Data Post Mesh Implantation for Detecting Public Emotion and Identifying Concern Reports. DOI |
| 2013 | Bagrow, J. P., Desu, S., Frank, M. R., Manukyan, N., Mitchell, L., Reagan, A., . . . Bongard, J. C. (2013). Shadow networks: Discovering hidden nodes with models of information flow. |
- ARC Discovery Project DP210103700: Mathematical modelling of information flow in social networks (with A/Prof Jim Bagrow and Prof. Matthew Roughan) ($390,000 over 3 years)
- NHMRC Ideas Grant 2002589: Improving the safety of implantable medical devices (with Dr. Marianne Gillam, Dr. Marie-Therese Kelly, Dr. Renly Lim and Dr. Tyman Stanford) ($775,924 over 3 years)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) (Chief Investigator in 2021)
- Universities Australia-DAAD (Germany) Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme: Detection and classification of malicious virtual grassroots influence campaigns in social media (with F Neumann, M Nasim, D Weber, C Grimme, H Trautmann, D Assenmacher) ($24,000 over 2 years)
- Cyber Security CRC: Cyber-social-security during COVID-19: The social media reaction to COVIDSafe ($10,000 over 1 year)
- DST/University of Adelaide Research agreement: Modelling in the grey zone (with Prof D Stephens) ($175,000 over 1 year)
- Centre for Invasive Species Solutions: Understanding and intervening in illegal trade in non-native species (with Prof. Joshua Ross and A/Prof. Phill Cassey) ($665,000 over 3 years)
- Data to Decisions CRC Beat The News Project: Predicting common and novel disease outbreaks by assimilating open data into epidemiological models (with A/Prof. Joshua Ross and Prof. Nigel Bean) ($637,606 over 3 years)
- Data to Decisions CRC Beat The News Project: Predicting civil unrest and election outcomes using Bayesian network models (with Dr. Jonathan Tuke and Prof. Nigel Bean) ($661,261 over 3 years)
Courses
- APP MTH 4047 Mathematics of Artificial Intelligence (2022-24)
- MATHS 2203 Advanced Mathematical Perspectives II (2021,2023-24)
- APP MTH 3014 Optimisation III (2021-24)
- MATHS 7027 Mathematical Foundations of Data Science (2019-21)
- MATHS 1004 Mathematics for Data Science I (2019)
- APP MTH 3001 Applied Probability III (2018-19)
- MATHS 2102 Differential Equations II (2015-17)
- MATHS 2104 Numerical Methods II (2015-17)
- MBB Mathematics for Biostatistics (online) (2015)
- MATHS 1011 Mathematics 1A (algebra) (2014)
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Principal Supervisor | Understanding Online Influence via the Interplay between Narratives, Social Networks and Online-offline Interactions | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Yi Ren |
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | A mathematical modelling framework for examining how social media recommender systems shape user beliefs | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Connor Davidson |
| 2025 | Principal Supervisor | Quantifying Online Persuadability: Analysis, Metrics Development, and Application in Digital Discourse. | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Gia Bao Hoang |
| 2025 | Principal Supervisor | Mixture-of-Experts for Multimodal Synthetic Media Detection | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Alessandro Cardoso Laudares Pereira |
| 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Quantifying the onset of atrial fibrillation as a phase transition from synchrony into chaos | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Luke Phillip O'Loughlin |
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Uncertainty Calibration of Probabilistic Machine Learning Models | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Peter Moskvichev |
| 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Developing explainable AI methods for the financial sector | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Wenrui Zhang |
| 2023 | Principal Supervisor | Applications of data science and artificial intelligence to support intellectual property development in the creative industries | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Anton Andreacchio |
| 2023 | Principal Supervisor | Financial Causality Networks in Cryptocurrency Markets | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Cameron Cornell |
| 2022 | Co-Supervisor | Investigating information flow across multiple online social networks: a network science and information theory approach | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Sara Benedetti |
| 2022 | Principal Supervisor | Identifying and preventing the coordinated spread of misinformation | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Scott James Carnie-Bronca |
| 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Large-scale social media sentiment analysis as a predictor of public behaviour in Australia. | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Miss Saranzaya Magsarjav |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 - 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Process Discovery and Classification of User Behaviours in Online Social Networks | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Ethan Michael Johnson |
| 2022 - 2024 | Principal Supervisor | An Analysis of Bias in Australian Television Media | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Miss Irulan Claire Prowse Murphy |
| 2021 - 2023 | Principal Supervisor | Measuring and modelling information flows in real-world networks | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Miss Bridget Anna Smart |
| 2021 - 2023 | Principal Supervisor | The Application of Social Media in Modern-Day Influence Campaigns: Personality Profiling and Information Warfare | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Joshua Watt |
| 2020 - 2023 | Co-Supervisor | Optimising Battery Replacement in a Fleet of Scooters | Master of Philosophy | Master | Part Time | Mr Joshua Thomas Price |
| 2020 - 2022 | Co-Supervisor | Mathematics of Last-Mile Transportation | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Scott James Carnie-Bronca |
| 2020 - 2025 | Principal Supervisor | Natural Language Processing Reveals Patient Reported Experiences | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Curtis William Murray |
| 2019 - 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Lagrangian Coherent Data Assimilation for Chaotic Geophysical Systems | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Ms Rose Joy Crocker |
| 2019 - 2021 | Principal Supervisor | Non-parametric Information Flow Estimation in Social-Media News | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Tobin Max South |
| 2019 - 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Carmen et Standard Error: Computational Methods in Stylometry for Classical Latin Poetry | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Benjamin Charles Nagy |
| 2018 - 2022 | Co-Supervisor | Analysing Dynamics of the Illegal Wildlife Trade in Australia | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Adam Toomes |
| 2018 - 2020 | Principal Supervisor | Analysis of World War One Diaries using Natural Language Processing | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Miss Ashley Grace Dennis-Henderson |
| 2018 - 2023 | Co-Supervisor | Data Science and Usefulness in Domains of Human Action | Master of Philosophy | Master | Part Time | Mr Anton Andreacchio |
| 2017 - 2019 | Co-Supervisor | The One with the Social Network Analysis: The Extraction, Analysis and Modelling of Temporal Social Networks from Narratives | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Miss Michelle Claire Edwards |
| 2017 - 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Mathematical and Statistical Models of Human Behaviour in Digital Epidemiology | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Dennis Liu |
| 2017 - 2019 | Co-Supervisor | Using Approximate Bayesian Computation and Machine Learning Model Selection Techniques to Understand the Impact of Climate on Seasonal Influenza-like Illness in Australia | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Miss Jessica Penfold |
| 2017 - 2020 | Co-Supervisor | On the application of Bayesian inference to network estimation problems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Caitlin Miranda Gray |
| 2016 - 2019 | Co-Supervisor | Characterising the Social Media Temporal Response to External Events | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Peter Mathews |
| 2016 - 2018 | Co-Supervisor | A methodology for predictive topic modelling; or, any excuse to watch Love Actually | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Miss Vanessa Grace Glenny |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Location | Program | Supervision Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 - 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Explainability of machine learning models in credit default prediction | The University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Shufan Wang |
| 2023 - 2023 | Principal Supervisor | Coordinate networks can outperform Shannon interpolation | The University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Alexander Mackay |
| 2023 - 2023 | Co-Supervisor | Machine learning for sea ice remote sensing | The University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Elizabeth Shine |
| 2023 - ongoing | Co-Supervisor | Stochastic process mining | The University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Alexandra Stephenson |
| 2022 - ongoing | Co-Supervisor | Branching process model of early spread of gene drives through mouse populations | The University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Thomas Heyworth |
| 2018 - 2018 | Principal Supervisor | Network analysis of communication on Twitter | University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Declan Jamieson |
| 2018 - 2018 | Principal Supervisor | Analysis of balance in signed social networks from movies | University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Saranzaya (Saka) Magsarjev |
| 2017 - 2019 | Co-Supervisor | Prediction using emotional arcs in movies | University of Adelaide | - | Honours | Part Time | Luke Pickering |
| 2016 - 2018 | Co-Supervisor | Prediction of civil unrest events using Poisson and Hawkes models | University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Wendy Li |
| 2016 - 2016 | Principal Supervisor | Information cascades on random networks | University of Adelaide | - | Honours | - | Caitlin Gray |
| Date | Role | Committee | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 - ongoing | Member | School of Mathematical Sciences Outreach Committee | - | - |
| Date | Role | Membership | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 - ongoing | Member | Australian Mathematical Society | Australia |